FOI release

Non-domestic rating: plant and machinery on the 2010 rating list

Published 3 April 2017

This foi release was withdrawn on

We have removed outdated reports from the disclosure log, particularly those of limited appeal to the general public. This includes releases from 2015 to 2019, which are not of wider public interest such as those in a very narrow geographical area or data which is now published elsewhere.

In England, the rating of plant and machinery is expressly governed by statute. The Valuation for Rating (plant and machinery) (England) Regulations 2000 set out four classes of rateable plant and machinery:

Class 1 includes items which are used for the generation, storage, transformation and transmission of power. Steam engines, cables and conductors, water wheels, wind turbines and solar panels fall into this category.

Class 2 covers plant that provide services to a property. Examples include heating, cooling, lighting, supplying water and protection from hazards.

Class 3 lists rateable infrastructure, including lifts and railway tracks.

Class 4 covers qualifying pieces of structural process plant, including masts, fixed cranes and tanks. Many of the items listed in this category are not rateable if their total cubic capacity is less than 400 cubic metres.

The majority of plant and machinery – including such items as communications tools and IT equipment – do not fall into any of these categories and are not rateable as a consequence.

Where plant and machinery is considered to be inherent to the site or building it is reflected in the rate used to value a building. In other cases it is separately valued and added to the building to arrive at a rateable value.

The aggregate of individual recorded entries for plant and machinery is £120million, rounded to the nearest million.

This is not an aggregate valuation of all plant and machinery due to the reasons outlined above.