Official Statistics

Release notes

Published 30 October 2014

Applies to England and Wales

Summary

Non-domestic rateable properties (known as “hereditaments”) fall either into a local rating list or the central rating list. There is a single local rating list for each billing authority in England and Wales, and two central rating lists, one for England and one for Wales. The majority of rateable value is contained in local rating lists (over 95% across England and Wales). The central list is smaller and contains the rating assessments for the network property of major transport, utility and telecommunications undertakings and cross-country pipelines. There is a single entry in the rating list for each company named in The Central Rating List Regulations 2005.

The VOA provides separate published statistics on the central and local rating Lists.

Local Rating Lists

In summary, at the 30th September 2014 the 2010 local rating lists:

• Have a total rateable value of £59.7bn across both England and Wales, which represents a very small decrease (less than 1%) in the six months since 31 March 2014;
• Are made up of 1.9m properties (across both England and Wales);

Furthermore:

• The majority of these properties are in England (1.8m, compared with 109,000 in Wales);
• Likewise the majority of the Rateable Value (RV) is also in England (£57.2bn in England, compared with £2.4bn in Wales)
• The average Rateable Value of a property (across England and Wales) is £31,000
• The region with the highest average Rateable Value in England is London (at £55,000), and the region with the lowest average Rateable Value is the South West (at £23,000)

Central Rating Lists

The central rating lists have a total rateable value of £2.9bn for England and Wales (as at 31st September 2014), and as with the local rating lists, this represents a very small decrease (approximately 1%) in the six months since 31 March 2014.

About this release

This release updates the previous release summarising the 2010 central rating lists and the 2005 and 2010 local rating lists last published on 24 April 2014, which can be found at http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/statisticalReleases/140424_Central_Local_Rating_List.html

The counts of properties, total rateable values and average rateable values are derived from data for England and Wales extracted from the Valuation Office Agency’s administrative database on 30 September 2014.

Data quality

The information supplied in the tables is based on administrative data held within the VOA’s operational database. The VOA has made every effort to ensure its accuracy.

Use made of the data

This publication is being released as part of a general drive towards making VOA’s data more accessible. The data will be used to inform government policy and conduct operational analyses to support the Valuation Office Agency.

Glossary

Area code – a unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Billing authority – a local authority empowered to collect central and local rates on behalf of itself and other local authorities in its area. In England, shires, metropolitan districts, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, unitary authorities, London boroughs and the City of London are billing authorities.

Billing authority code – a unique identifier for billing authorities.

Business rates – the commonly used term for non-domestic rates - are charged on most non-domestic premises, including most commercial properties such as shops, offices, pubs, warehouses and factories.

Region – a geographical unit formerly referred to as Government Office Region (GOR). The GOR framework was the primary classification for regional statistics and comprised nine regions of England, which combined with the devolved administrations collectively, spanned the United Kingdom. From 1 April 2011 the term dropped GOR in favour of region. This release comprises England regions plus Wales.

Hereditament – the legal name for the unit of non-domestic property that is, or may become, liable to national non-domestic rates, and thus appears on the rating lists.

Rateable value – the legal term for the notional annual rent of a rateable property, assessed by the VOA. Every property has a rateable value that is based, broadly, on the annual rent that the property could have been let for on the open market at a particular date (this is 1 April 2003 for the 2005 local list and 1 April 2008 for the 2010 list.)

Property description – Broad category assigned to rateable properties listed on the central rating lists.

SCat – see Special Category.

Special category – a code that groups together properties of a similar type. This includes a property’s use.

Background Notes

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is required, by the Local Government Finance Act 1988, to compile (and maintain) rating lists specifying a rateable value for all non domestic rateable properties in England and Wales. These rateable values provide the basis for national non-domestic rates bills, which are issued by local authorities.

The current rating lists came into effect on 1 April 2010. New lists are usually compiled every five years containing updated rateable values. However, the next revaluation will be with effect from 1 April 2017.

The central rating lists contain the rating assessments of the network property of major transport, utility and telecommunications undertakings and cross-country pipelines. There is a single entry in the rating list for each company named in the Central Rating List Regulations 2005. There are separate Regulations and lists for England and Wales.

There is a single aggregate rateable value shown for all the property occupied by the named ratepayer that falls within their definition in the Regulations. Any property occupied by a central list ratepayer that falls outside the definition will be shown individually in a local rating list.

Rates on central rating list rateable properties in England are paid direct to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and in Wales to the Welsh Assembly Government.

Further information

The responsible statistician for this release is Sarah Sawyer who can be contacted via email at statistics@voa.gsi.gov.uk.

This release can be found at the following location on the VOA website: http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/statisticsCentralLocalRating.html

Timings of future releases are regularly placed on the Agency’s website at the follow location: http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/ReleaseTimetable.html

For more information on the area codes used in this release please refer to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website at the following location: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/geography/geographic-policy/best-practice-guidance/presentation-order-guidance/administrative-areas/index.html.

CSV metadata

The following table provides the variable names and descriptions appearing on the CSV files included in this release.

Variable	Description
AREA	Administrative area name.
AREA_CODE	Unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
BA_CODE	Unique identifier for billing authorities.
SCAT_DESCRIPTION	Description of Special Category applied to a hereditament.
HERED_CNT_2005	Rateable property (Hereditament) count, 2005 Local Rating Lists.
HERED_CNT_2010	Rateable property (Hereditament) count, 2010 Local Rating Lists.
RV_TTL	Total rateable value, 2010 Central Rating List.
RV_TTL_2005	Total rateable value, 2005 Local Rating Lists.
RV_TTL_2010	Total rateable value, 2010 Local Rating Lists.
RV_AVG_2005	Average rateable value, 2005 Local Rating Lists.
RV_AVG_2010	Average rateable value, 2010 Local Rating Lists.
SCAT_CODE	Special Category code.
SECTION	Type of rateable property valued on a national basis

The table below details the variables present in each CSV file (denoted by ‘X’).

Variable / Table	1	2	3	4	5
AREA			X	X
AREA_CODE			X	X
BA_CODE				X
SCAT_DESCRIPTION					X
HERED_CNT_2005			X	X	X
HERED_CNT_2010			X	X	X
RV_TTL	X	X
RV_TTL_2005			X	X	X
RV_TTL_2010			X	X	X
RV_AVG_2005			X	X	X
RV_AVG_2010			X	X	X
SCAT_CODE					X
SECTION	X	X