Official Statistics

Release notes, 28 August 2014 (Wales only)

Published 25 September 2014

Applies to England and Wales

Summary

There were 1.4 million domestic properties in Wales with a Council Tax band on 26 July 2014.

Most properties were in Council Tax Band B (22 per cent), followed by Council Tax Band C (21 per cent) and Council Tax Band D (16 per cent).

About this release

This release provides a table showing the number of dwellings by Council Tax Band for each administrative area in Wales.

The counts are calculated from data for Wales extracted from the Valuation Office Agency’s administrative database on 26 July 2014.

For all tables counts are rounded to the nearest 10 with counts fewer than 5 but greater than 0 reported as negligible and denoted by ‘-‘. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

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 to the public. The data are used to inform government policy and to conduct operational analyses to support the Valuation Office Agency.

Background notes

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is a central government agency responsible, amongst other things, for banding homes for council tax purposes. It does not set the level of council tax nor collect the money, which is the task of local government.

The VOA has had responsibility for banding properties for council tax since the tax was first introduced in 1993, and before then the VOA was responsible for the rating list underlying the earlier system of domestic rates. Council tax is a local tax, set by local councils, to help pay for local services. It uses the relative value of homes to determine each household’s contribution for these local services.

It is the duty of the VOA to act fairly and impartially, and to make sure that each home is correctly assessed and placed in the right band. This is so that there is the fairest possible basis on which local councils can send bills to taxpayers for the right amount of council tax – no more, no less. In carrying out this duty, the VOA operates to professional standards.

The VOA’s job is to place each home in one of eight valuation bands (nine bands in Wales) on the basis of its value at 1st April 1991 (1st April 2003 in Wales), which then determines the amount to be paid. The tables below show the breakdown of bands for England and Wales. New homes are assigned a band on the basis of what they would have been valued at in 1991 (2003 in Wales). The basis of valuation is set down in regulations made under the Local Government Finance Act 1992. Minor updates were made to the initial regulations in 1994 but they have not been changed since then.

Bands for England

Band	Value of dwelling (at April 1991)
A	Up to 40,000
B	40,001 up to 52,000
C	52,001 up to 68,000
D	68,001 up to 88,000
E	88,001 up to 120,000
F	120,001 up to 160,000
G	160,001 up to 320,000
H	320,001 and above

Bands for Wales

Band	Value of dwelling (at April 1991)
A	Up to 44,000
B	44,001 up to 65,000
C	65,001 up to 91,000
D	91,001 up to 123,000
E	123,001 up to 120,000
F	120,001 up to 162,000
G	162,001 up to 223,000
H	324,001 up to 424,000
I	424,001 and above

Glossary of terms

The most relevant terms for this release are explained below.

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

Band - Council Tax band.

Billing Authority – a local authority empowered to set and collect council tax and non-domestic 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.

Dwelling – a dwelling is a separate unit of living accommodation, together with any garden, yard, garage or other outbuildings, attached to it, all occupied by the same person(s) and within the same area of land.

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/statisticsCouncilTax.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

Further information on the area codes used in this release please refer to the ONS’s 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 re ease.

Table 1: Number of dwellings by Council Tax band and region in Wales as at 26 July 2014

Variable	Variable Description
BA_CODE	Unique identifier for billing authorities
AREA_CODE	Unique identifier for administrative geographies as specified by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
AREA	Administrative area name
Band_A:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band A
Band_B:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band B
Band_C:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band C
Band_D:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band D
Band_E:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band E
Band_F:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band F
Band_G:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band G
Band_H:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band H
Band_I:	Counts of dwellings in Wales with Council Tax band I
TOTAL	Counts of dwellings in Wales across all Council Tax bands