HC Deb 31 January 1995 vol 253 cc580-1W
Mr. Congdon

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in settling initial appeals against bandings for council tax in England; when he expects the remainder to be settled; and how quickly new appeals will be dealt with.

Mr. Curry

A year ago, my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) announced that we expected the Valuation Office agency and the valuation tribunals to have settled four out of five of the initial council tax appeals in England by the end of 1994,Official Report, column 154.

By 31 December last, 704,888 appeals had been settled—81.5 per cent. of those received during the initial period. The great majority of cases were resolved through discussion between the agency and the taxpayer.

Progress was commendably consistent across the country. The settlement rate had reached or exceeded 80 per cent. in over three quarters of all billing authority areas; only in 16 areas was the rate less than 75 per cent. I have today placed in the Library a list showing the numbers and proportions of initial appeals resolved in each billing authority area.

This has been an impressive achievement on the part of the agency, which has had other major tasks to carry out at the same time, including a rating revaluation of all non-domestic properties. The valuation tribunals have also had an important part to play. In the event, relatively few appeals have needed a tribunal hearing to resolve, but the readiness of tribunals to list cases for timely hearings has been invaluable in keeping up the pace of settlements. Tribunal members receive no payment for their services, and I am extremely grateful to them and, above all, to their chairmen and presidents for their preparedness to give up so much of their time to help deal with this exceptional case load.

Future progress is harder to predict, since the proportion of cases still outstanding that are likely to be resolved in discussion is lower than before. However, I very much hope that around 90 per cent. of initial appeals will have been settled by the end of March, and the remainder, or all but a handful, by the summer.

Appeals can still be made in certain circumstances, for example following a change of taxpayer or a material reduction in the value of the dwelling. Once the bulk of the initial appeals have been disposed of, we expect that any such new appeals will generally be settled within 12 months from the date of the taxpayer's proposal.