CPA worries that the Check, Challenge Appeal process is too long-wind

Commercial Property Advisors (CPA) non-domestic rates consultants, considers it highly unfair that businesses should be waiting for up to two, or even mre, years for the adjudication of their rates appeals.

With every penny accounted for, and pre-pandemic levels of bills arriving daily , not least from the Exchequer, on firms' doorsteps, CPA deplores the cumbersome and time-consuming delays caused by local government and the VOA.

Also, CPA worries that the prospect of three-yearly valuations will further clog up the bureaucratic works, rather than providing a more accurate financial picture of rateable values.

To compound the problem, CPA urges the VOA not to burden business with detailed annual reports on their premises and general activities.

Clearly, it is in the Government's interests to partially offload administration of its non-domestic rates onto firms themselves, but CPA urges the VOA to consult with business before increasing its already-heavy burden of paperwork.

Or is the VOA too short-staffed to deliver a fair rating system?