2009 No. 112
RATING AND VALUATION

The Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2009

Made
Laid before the Scottish Parliament
Coming into force
The Scottish Ministers make the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 6A(1)(aa) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 19561 and section 27(6A), (6B) and (6C) of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 19942 and all other powers enabling them to do so.
In accordance with section 6A(1D) of the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 19563 and section 27(6D) of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 they have consulted such associations of local authorities and such other persons as they think appropriate.

Citation and commencement

1.

This Order may be cited as the Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2009 and comes into force on 1st April 2010.

Amendment of the Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Order 2005

2.

The Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Order 20054 is amended in accordance with the following provisions of this Order.

Fixed Line Telecommunications

3.

After article 7 (railways) insert–

“Fixed Line Telecommunications7A.

(1)

Any lands and heritages which would (apart from this Order) be treated as justifying separate entries in two or more valuation rolls shall be treated for all purposes of the Valuation Acts as justifying only one entry in the valuation roll for Renfrewshire in respect of each fixed line operator if they are–

(a)

occupied by that fixed line operator; and

(b)

occupied by posts, wires, fibres, cables and ducts, telephone kiosks, towers, masts, switching equipment or other equipment, or by servitudes or wayleaves, being property used by that fixed line operator wholly or mainly for the purposes of monitoring, processing or transmission of communications signals for the provision of telecommunications services.

(2)

A “fixed line operator” for the purposes of this article, is any of the companies registered at the date of this Order with the following names and registration numbers:

Company name

Registration number

AOL (UK) Ltd

03462696

Atlas Connect Ltd

SC241790

Be Un Limited

05262862

British Telecommunications plc

01800000

Cable & Wireless plc

00238525

Easynet Limited

02954343

Entanet International Ltd

03274237

Gamma Telecom Ltd

04340834

Global Crossing (UK) Telecommunications Ltd

02495998

Lumison

SC236128

NEOS Networks Ltd

03477297

Ntl Business Ltd

3076222

Opal Telecom Limited

3849133

Orange Ltd

03110666

Pipex Broadband Ltd

03137499

Pipex Communications Services Ltd

03059016

Smallworld Media Communications Ltd

05679836

Telefónica O2 UK Limited

01743099

Tiscali UK Ltd

03408171

Thus plc

SC192666

Verizon UK Limited

02776038

Virgin Media Group

02591237

Vtesse Networks Limited

03900836”.

4.

(1)

At the end of column 1 in the Schedule (designated assessors for the valuation of utilities) add “Assessor for the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board”.

(2)

At the end of column 2 in the Schedule add “The lands and heritages specified in article 7A (Fixed Line Telecommunications).”.

JOHN SWINNEY
A member of the Scottish Executive

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Non-Domestic Rating (Valuation of Utilities) (Scotland) Order 2005 and comes into force on 1st April 2010.

Article 3 of this Order specifies the lands and heritages to be valued within the fixed line telecommunications industry, where these are occupied by a specified fixed line telecommunication operator. Where these lands and heritages would otherwise be treated as justifying separate entries in two or more valuation rolls, they are to be treated as justifying one entry in the valuation roll for Renfrewshire in respect of each operator.

The effect is that one assessor is designated to value all lands and heritages covered by the Order. That assessor has the powers of the assessors for the local valuation areas. Any appeals would be heard by the Renfrewshire joint board’s valuation appeal committee.