Valuation Office Agency (VOA) moving on … to become integral part of HMRC

Yesterday, Monday 28 April 2025, HM Treasury announced 39 measures to reform and simplify the tax and customs system, "making it more modern and effective, and creating the right conditions to support the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change."

One key measure of the 39 announced related to changes being made to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).  The VOA is currently an executive agency of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), and these proposals are to fully integrate the VOA into it's parent department, "as part of the government’s drive to slash red tape, increase oversight and ministerial accountability and rewire Whitehall to be more productive and agile".

The VOA is responsible for valuing properties for council tax and business rates purposes, as well as more latterly since the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), having oversight of a number of legislative appeal processes that are available to CIL payers unhappy with the outcome of Liability Notices issued by local planning authorities.

According to HM Treasury, "the VOA’s work supports the collection of over £60 billion in council tax and business rates each year, and also provides commercial property valuation services to the public sector.

"The move will improve the experience of taxpayers and businesses by cutting the time spent managing taxes and upgrading the customer experience during the transition to a reformed business rates system.

"Having become chair of HMRC’s board last year to strengthen political accountability and delivery, this will help deliver James Murray’s three priorities for HMRC: improving customer service, closing the tax gap, and modernising and reforming services.

"The majority of the VOA’s functions will be brought into HMRC by April 2026, and is expected to deliver between 5 to 10% of additional savings in VOA administrative costs by 2028-29."

E³ Consulting regularly deals with the VOA in response to valuation issues affecting our service lines, commonly CIL and Capital Allowances.  It will be interesting to see the effect these measures have on the actual efficiencies in practice, as this could create an upheaval that has a negative impact on established procedures which are expected to be enacted in what seems to be a relatively short period - over the next year.