The Valuation Office is an executive agency of the Inland Revenue.

A Valuation Officer compiles and maintains a Rating List under a statutory duty imposed by the Local Government Finance Act 1988. There are 23 group valuation officers, with a supporting network of offices throughout England and Wales.

The '1995 Rating List' derives its title from the year it first came into force following the general revaluation of all non-domestic properties carried out by the Valuation Office in 1995. The version of the 1995 rating list available on this web site is a recently consolidated 'snapshot' of all of the local rating lists in England and Wales. The local rating lists held here contain all of the rating assessments current at the time the data was extracted from the Valuation Office's central database. These extracts of consolidated rating lists will, after April 2000, normally be done at 2-monthly intervals. The date of the latest consolidated version of the rating list will be displayed on the billing authority selection page.

This part of the application will:

The rating assessment for any brand new building and those resulting from a reconstitution of existing assessment(s), that have been assessed since the date the current consolidated rating list was loaded on this application, are listed separately under the 'New Addresses' button.

The '2000 Rating List' derives its title from the year it first came into force following the general revaluation of all non-domestic properties carried out by the Valuation Office in 2000. The version of the 2000 rating list available on this web site is a recently consolidated 'snapshot' of all of the local rating lists in England and Wales. The local rating lists held here contain all of the rating assessments current at the time the data was extracted from the Valuation Office's central database. These extracts of consolidated rating lists will, after April 2000, normally be done at 2-monthly intervals. The date of the latest consolidated version of the rating list will be displayed on the billing authority selection page.

This part of the application will:

The rating assessment for any brand new building and those resulting from a reconstitution of existing assessment(s), that have been assessed since the date the current consolidated rating list was loaded on this application, are listed separately under the 'New Addresses' button.

The entry in the rating list representing a single unit of rateable occupation and normally comprising: a unique reference number, an address and description of the property, its rateable value and the effective date from which it became liable for rates.

The rateable value of a property is based on the annual rent which the Valuation Officer believes would be agreed on the open market at the valuation date. The valuation date is always 2 years prior to the beginning of the rating list, so the valuation date for the 1995 rating list is 1/4/93 and for the 2000 rating list it is 1/4/98. Therefore the rateable value is not your rates bill. Your billing authority calculates the rates bill by multiplying the rateable value by an amount which is set each year by the Government (known as the 'poundage' or 'Uniform Business Rate') and by applying any reliefs to which you may be entitled.

The rating liability may be varied upward or downward to reflect the effects of the transitional scheme which limits increases or decreases in liability following a revaluation to certain limited percentages.

Adjustment may also be made for other relief.

The Multipliers for	England	Wales
1st April 2003 - 31 March 2004	44.4p	44.0p
1st April 2002 - 31 March 2003	43.7p	42.6p
1st April 2001 - 31 March 2002	43.0p	42.6p
1st April 2000 - 31 March 2001	41.6p	41.2p

For information regarding rate charges for an individual rating assessment, please contact the Rating Department at the appropriate Billing Authority.

Your billing authority is the local authority which sets the rates bill for your property. If you are unsure of the name of your billing authority, you will find it on your last rates bill. You will need this information to search the rating lists.

For further information about your rates bill, please contact the Rating Department (which may also be known as the rates office or revenues office) at the appropriate billing authority.

A reconstituted property means that the property, or its occupation, has been rearranged to form a different rateable unit or units. This involves the reconstitution of one or more existing rating assessments into one or more different rating assessments. The most common examples of this will be where a previous assessment will have been divided into two or more assessments, or several previous assessments will have been merged into one.