The Court of Appeal has dismissed appeals by the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy seeking the compulsory winding up, on public interest grounds, of companies operating schemes designed to avoid business rates. The appeals are the latest in an extensive line of cases in which central and local government have sought to defeat business rates avoidance schemes. In these latest cases the Court of Appeal found that there was no public interest that justified the compulsory winding up of the companies operating these schemes. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has dismissed an appeal against a refusal by a Vice=President of the Valuation Tribunal for England (VTE) to review a decision of the VTE. The Upper Tribunal’s decision is a useful reminder to practitioners that there is no appeal against a refusal by the VTE to review one of its decisions, and that the time limit for an appeal against a VTE decision itself, is not suspended because of an application for a review. ...Read More

The Supreme Court has determined that the sites of Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) at food supermarkets and at convenience stores do not form separately rateable hereditaments and should be treated for rating purposes as part of the host store hereditament. The Court dismissed an appeal by the Valuation Office Agency against an earlier decision of the Court of Appeal. This judgment brings to an end more than six years of litigation on this subject, and clears the way to resolve many thousands of outstanding appeals. It also has implications for other cases where there is potentially more than one hereditament. ...Read More

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, has made a written statement on 21 July, announcing that the next rating revaluation in England will take effect from 1 April 2023, and will be based upon values at 1 April 2021. This revaluation replaces one that was due to take effect from 1 April 2022 based upon property values at 1 April 2019. The government statement says that the change in date will allow the revaluation better to reflect the effects of Covid 19 on property values. ...Read More

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has considered the valuation for rating purposes of a bingo hall which had been reduced in size. The Tribunal found that, because the original valuation was based on the receipts generated by the property, a change in floor area would not result in a change in valuation, unless it could be shown that the receipts at the valuation date would also have altered as a result of the change to the property. The ratepayer had not shown any such reason and its appeal was dismissed. ...Read More