Rating and Valuation Act 1961

Valuation Provisions

1 Rating of industrial and freight-transport hereditaments

No reduction in rateable value shall be made under section sixty-eight of the Local Government Act, 1929 (which provided for relief from rates in respect of industrial and freight-transport hereditaments) for the purposes of valuation lists coming into force after the passing of this Act.

2 Power to reduce rateable value of dwelling-houses, etc., for the purposes of first new valuation lists

(1) If the Minister by order so provides, then for the purposes of the first valuation lists coming into force after the passing of this Act the rateable value of—

(a) any such hereditament as is mentioned in subsection (1) of section two of the Valuation for Rating Act, 1953 (which relates to dwelling-houses and certain other private premises), or

(b) a hereditament falling within paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of section four of the said Act of 1953 (which relates to hereditaments partly used as private dwellings) and not excluded by subsection (4) of that section,

shall be the amount produced by deducting from the net annual value of the hereditament such percentage of that value as may be prescribed by the order for paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection, as the case may be.

(2) In prescribing a percentage for paragraph (a) or (b) of the foregoing subsection the Minister may make different provision according to the administrative county or county borough in which a hereditament is situated.

In this subsection the reference to a county includes a reference to the Isles of Scilly.

(3) An order under this section shall not have effect unless approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

3 Valuation of certain hereditaments hitherto valued by reference to profits, etc.

(1) The Minister may by order make provision for determining the rateable value of hereditaments to which this section applies, or any class or description of such hereditaments specified in the order, by such method as may be so specified.

(2) This section applies to—

(a) any hereditament occupied by the National Coal Board,

(b) any other hereditament which consists of or includes a mine or quarry or the whole or part of which is occupied together with a mine or quarry in connection with its working, or the treatment, preparation, storage or removal of its minerals or products of its minerals or the removal of its refuse,

(c) any hereditament occupied by the persons carrying on, under authority conferred by or under any enactment, a dock or harbour undertaking, and

(d) any hereditament occupied by the persons carrying on an undertaking for the diffusion by wire of sound or television programmes.

Any reference in paragraph (b) of this subsection to a mine or quarry includes a reference to a well or bore-hole or a well and bore-hole combined, but except as aforesaid expressions used in that paragraph and the Mines and Quarries Act, 1954, have the same meanings in that paragraph as in that Act.

(3) Any order under this section applying to any hereditament falling within any paragraph of the foregoing subsection, or any class or description of such hereditaments, may provide for determining rateable value by the application of different methods of valuation to different parts of the hereditament.

(4) Before making any order under this section the Minister shall consult with such associations of local authorities or of persons carrying on undertakings as appear to him to be concerned and with any local authority or person carrying on an undertaking with whom consultation appears to him to be desirable.

(5) In the year following the coming into force of the second valuation lists for the purposes of which any order under this section has effect the Minister shall, in consultation with such associations, local authorities and persons as aforesaid, cause investigations to be made into the effect of the operation of the order; and the Minister shall cause to be laid before Parliament a report on any investigations made under this subsection and their result.

(6) An order under this section may repeal or amend any enactment so far as that enactment relates to the valuation of hereditaments to which the order relates, may as regards such hereditaments apply, restrict or modify the enactments relating to proposals for alterations of valuation lists and to appeals in connection with such lists and to the withholding of rates where proposals are pending, and shall have effect notwithstanding anything in any such enactment.

(7) No order under this section shall have effect unless approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(8) No order under this section shall have effect for the purposes of valuation lists in force at the passing of this Act.

4 Valuation of county and voluntary school premises

(1) The Ministers may make regulations providing that, for the purposes of any valuation lists coming into force after the passing of this Act, being lists to which the regulations apply, the gross value of county and voluntary schools of any prescribed class shall be ascertained in accordance with provisions of the regulations—

(a) requiring the Minister of Education to certify the amount estimated by him, by reference to such factors as appear to him to be relevant, to be the average cost of providing a place for one pupil in a school of that class completed not less than one year before the coming into force of the lists ;

(b) providing for the determination for any school of that class of an amount equal to the product—

(i) of a standard gross value for each such place, being a prescribed percentage of the amount certified under the foregoing paragraph, and

(ii) of the number of places determined in accordance with the regulations to be available for pupils in that school; and

(c) providing for taking as the gross value for any such school the amount arrived at under the foregoing paragraph as adjusted in the prescribed manner by reference to the age, lay-out and construction of the buildings, the facilities and amenities provided at the school and such other factors of any description as may be prescribed.

(2) The Ministers may by regulations provide that land of any prescribed description forming part of, or occupied with, a county or voluntary school shall in such cases as may be prescribed be treated for rating purposes as a separate hereditament and not as forming part of the school or its appurtenances.

(3) Before making any regulations under this section the Ministers shall consult with such associations of local authorities as appear to them to be concerned and with any local authority with whom consultation appears to them to be desirable, and any statutory instrument containing such regulations shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(4) In this section " county school " and " voluntary school " have the same meanings as in the Education Act, 1944, " the Ministers " means the Minister and the Minister of Education, and " prescribed " means prescribed by regulations under this section.

5 Amendments as to plant and machinery to be included in hereditament

(1) The Minister may by order provide for excluding from the plant and combinations of plant and machinery which are to be treated as comprised in Class 4 in the Third Schedule to the Act of 1925 (the Schedule which describes the classes of machinery and plant to be deemed to be part of a hereditament for rating purposes) any item or part of an item which satisfies the following conditions :—

(a) that it is the practice of the trade for which the item is provided to move the item or part from one hereditament, or situation in a hereditament, to another, and

(b) that the weight, greatest dimension, and volume (each being measured as provided by the order) do not exceed such limits as may be prescribed by the order.

(2) An order under the foregoing subsection may be made either generally or as respects specified descriptions of items or parts of items of plant or of combinations of plant and machinery, and may make different provision under paragraph (b) of the foregoing subsection for different cases.

(3) Any statutory instrument containing an order under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(4) In the proviso to Class 1 in the Third Schedule to the Act of 1925 (which excludes process plant from that class notwithstanding that it is used in connection with the process for the purpose of heating, cooling, ventilating, lighting, supplying water or protecting from fire) and in the proviso (to the like effect) in Class 1B in the Schedule to the Plant and Machinery (Rating) Order, 1960, after the word " lighting " there shall be inserted the word " draining ".

6 Adjustment of gross value by reference to provision of or payment for services, etc.

(1) The following provisions of this section shall have effect for the purpose of ascertaining the gross value of a hereditament in cases where it falls to be ascertained by reference to the rent payable in respect of that or some other hereditament (hereinafter referred to as the standard hereditament) and either or both the following conditions are fulfilled, that is to say, the rent of the standard hereditament is partly attributable to the provision by the landlord of services in relation to that hereditament (including the repair, maintenance or insurance of premises not forming part of that hereditament) or the tenant, in addition to the rent, contributes towards the cost of any such services.

(2) Where the rent of the standard hereditament is partly attributable to the provision by the landlord of such services, the sum falling to be deducted from that rent for the said purpose as being the amount attributable to the provision of those services shall not include any amount in respect of—

(a) any profit made, or which might be expected to be made, by the landlord in providing those services ;

(b) the cost of repairs to, and maintenance and insurance of, premises not forming part of that hereditament.

(3) Where the tenant of the standard hereditament, in addition to the rent.—

(a) makes payments to the landlord in consideration of the landlord undertaking to provide any such services in relation to that hereditament; or

(b) otherwise contributes (directly or indirectly and whether in pursuance of an undertaking to do so or not) to the cost of repairing, maintaining or insuring other premises not forming part of that hereditament but belonging to or occupied by the landlord, being premises which the landlord has not undertaken to repair, maintain or insure, as the case may be ;

the rent shall for the purpose of ascertaining gross value be treated as increased by the amount of the payments or other contributions made by the tenant or, where those amounts vary from time to time, by a sum which on a proper estimate equals the average annual amount so paid or contributed.

(4) Nothing in the foregoing subsection shall be taken to prejudice any right to make a deduction from the rent of a hereditament, for the purpose of ascertaining gross value, in respect of services provided by the landlord or other matters.

(5) Any reference in the foregoing provisions of this section to premises includes a reference to any plant or machinery which by virtue of section twenty-four of the Act of 1925 is treated as part of those premises for rating purposes or would be so treated if those premises were a rateable hereditament.

(6) In the definition of " gross value " in section sixty-eight of the Act of 1925, the proviso (which provides that no account shall be taken of the value of services provided by the landlord and which has become unnecessary) shall cease to have effect.

(7) An alteration in a valuation list made in pursuance of a proposal made for the purpose of giving effect to any of the foregoing provisions of this section, being an alteration which would by virtue of subsection (1) of section forty-two of the Act of 1948 (alterations retrospective to beginning of current rate period) be deemed to have had effect as from a date before the passing of this Act, shall be deemed to have had effect as from the passing of this Act.

7 Valuation of hereditaments which are partly occupied

(1) If it appears to the rating authority that part of a hereditament included in the valuation list is unoccupied but will remain so for a short time only, the authority may request the valuation officer to apportion the rateable value of the hereditament between the occupied and unoccupied parts; and if the apportionment made by the valuation officer is agreed by the authority and the occupier, then, as from—

(a) the date upon which the hereditament became partly occupied, or

(b) the commencement of the rate period in which the request was made,

whichever is the later, until any of the unoccupied part is reoccupied or a further apportionment of the value of the hereditament takes effect under this section, the value apportioned to the occupied part shall be treated for rating purposes as if it were the value ascribed to the hereditament in the valuation list.

(2) This section shall not apply in relation to any hereditament of which the owner (within the meaning of section eleven of the Act of 1925) is rated or has undertaken to pay the rates instead of the occupier, but shall apply in relation to a hereditament the owner of which has undertaken to collect on behalf of the rating authority the rates due from the occupier.

8 Miscellaneous amendments as to net annual value and rateable value

(1) For the purposes of valuation lists coming into force at any time after the passing of this Act the following provisions shall have effect.

(2) The deduction from gross value in respect of drainage and other rates provided for by paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section twenty-two of the Act of 1925, as amended by subsection (7) of section five of the Act of 1955, shall not be made.

(3) The deduction provided for, in the case of certain hereditaments, by paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section twenty-two of the Act of 1925 and Part II of the Second Schedule thereto (which relates to deductions in lieu of certain previous reliefs from rates) shall not be made, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed as providing any such corresponding relief as is mentioned in subsection (2) of the said section twenty-two.

9 Valuation of advertising stations

(1) In valuing for rating purposes any right which constitutes a separate hereditament by virtue of section fifty-six of the Act of 1948 (rating of advertising stations), the rent at which the hereditament might be expected to be let shall be estimated on the footing that it would include a proper amount in respect of any structure for the time being available for use, for the purpose of exhibiting advertisements, by the occupier of the separate hereditament, notwithstanding that the structure was provided by him or was provided after the right was let out or reserved.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in the said section fifty-six the separate hereditament shall be treated as coming into existence at the earliest time at which either any structure is erected, after the right constituting the hereditament has been let out or reserved, for enabling the right to be exercised or any advertisement is exhibited in pursuance of the right, and not before ; and for the purposes of subsection (2) of section forty-two of the Act of 1948 (cases in which alterations of valuation lists are not to be retrospective to beginning of rating period)—

(a) the hereditament shall be treated as a newly erected or newly constructed hereditament coming into occupation at the said earliest time, and

(b) the erection, dismantling or alteration, after that time, of any structure for enabling the right to be exercised shall, in relation to the hereditament, be treated as the making of structural alterations.

(3) In this section and section fifty-six of the Act of 1948 references to a structure include references to a hoarding, frame, post, wall or sign, and accordingly in that section the words " hoarding, frame, post, wall or " shall cease to have effect.

(4) This section shall have effect for the purposes of valuation lists coming into force at any time after the passing of this Act.

10 Assessment of certain burial grounds

Section fifteen of the Burial Act, 1855 (under which burial grounds purchased under the provisions of the Acts referred to in that section are not to be' valued for rating above the level at which the land was assessed at the time of the purchase) shall not apply in relation to any valuation lists coming into force after the passing of this Act.