HC Deb 19 April 1973 vol 855 cc153-7W
Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the size of the establishment for Inland Revenue district valuers; and if there are any unfilled vacancies.

Mr. Nott

The title "District Valuer" or "District Valuer and Valuation Officer" denotes the head of a local Inland Revenue Valuation Office, of which there are 214 in Great Britain. There are no vacancies in these posts.

There is no formal size of establishment for the professional valuer grades as a whole because of the continuing shortage of valuers in the service, which reflects a national scarcity. At 1st April 1973 the total professional staff in post excluding cadet valuers, was 2,398.

Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many additional district valuers he estimates will be re-required to cope with the new land hoarding charge.

Mr. Nott

None for the next three years; no estimate can yet be made of later needs, but the numbers are not expected to be large.

Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will analyse the number of district valuers engaged, respectively, on work connected with compulsory purchase orders, capital gains tax, estate duty and any other work.

Mr. Nott

The analysis varies according to the work-cycle on rating revaluation, but the current estimate of professional staff usage in man-years is as follows:

Estate Duty, Stamp Duty and Capital Gains tax 400
Work for other Government Departments, Local Authorities etc. 930
Rating valuation 1,065

No separate analysis is possible of work on compulsory purchase orders.

Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many valuations a year were made by district valuers in each of the last 10 years, showing the different categories of work.

Mr. Nott

Following is the information:

Year Estate Duty 1 Stamp Duty 2 Capital Gains 3 Work for other Government Departments and local authorities 4 Rating Proposals 5 Total 6 Negotiated Settlements 7
1962–63 86,993 6,685 103,837 840,292 1,037,807 52,551
1963–64 78,486 6,889 111,344 2,024,414 2,221,133 58,395
1964–65 72,177 8,341 123,831 1,198,974 1,403,323 65,446
1965–66 77,035 10,357 132,127 1,144,611 1,364,130 68,923
1966–67 80,042 12,784 5,096 148,000 1,144,279 1,390,201 70,164
1967–68 84,885 12,031 23,505 170,983 1,180,235 1,471,639 71,748
1968–69 90,911 10,809 37,764 176,596 1,226,086 1,542,166 66,424
1969–70 78,055 7,049 51,385 177,600 1,076,893 1,390,982 64,804
1970–71 58,595 6,523 50,594 176,264 1,051,907 1,343,883 65,349
1971–72 60,555 8,270 51,398 179,092 1,100,383 1,399,698 63,204
In addition to the valuations analysed in Columns 1–5 and totalled in Column 6, the Valuation Office negotiated settlements on behalf of other Government Departments and local authorities in the numbers shown in Column 7. Also, a complete revaluation for rating purposes as at 1st April 1973 was undertaken of all rateable hereditaments in England and Wales, totalling some 20 million.

Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the average time between a job being allocated to a district valuer's office and the furnishing of a valuation.

Mr. Nott

Statistics are not kept in a form which would enable such a figure to be calculated exactly, but the average time to process a case from first receipt to furnishing a valuation is less than two months.

Mr. Joel Barnett

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many jobs remain outstanding in district valuers' offices.

Mr. Nott

178,129 cases were being dealt with at 31st December 1972, the latest date for which statistics are available.