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Under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, government departments are required to review any legislation for which they are responsible that provides powers of entry, with a view to seeing if those powers are still required or if they can be repealed or amended. DCLG has reviewed its stock of such powers and identified two where it proposes amendments – the two concerned being powers of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to enter properties as part of its council tax and business rates work.
The VOA’s powers are to enter domestic property in connection with council tax bandings under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (section 26) and to enter non-domestic property in connection with business rates valuations under the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Schedule 9). The proposal is that these provisions should be removed and, instead, where the property owner or occupier will not allow access to the VOA by agreement, the VOA would be required to apply to the Valuation Tribunal for England for authority from the Tribunal to enter the property. If the Tribunal ordered entry and the owner or occupier continued to refuse access they would be liable to a fine on level 1 of the standard scale of civil penalties.
The consultation paper “Council Tax and Business Rates – Powers of Entry” seeks views on these proposals by 20 February 2015. The proposals should not prove to be particularly contentious ones as these powers are seldom, if ever, exercised.
What would be more interesting to know is what other powers of entry has DCLG identified, for example under planning, health and safety, building control, licencing or other legislation, and does it propose to consult about those? It would be interesting to know how many powers are not being consulted on in addition to the two which are the subject of consultation.
