The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is an executive Agency of HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC). We have over 80 offices across England, Wales and Scotland and employ around 4000 staff.
The work of the VOA comprises:
- compiling and maintaining lists of rateable values of the 1.7 million non-domestic properties in England, and 100,000 in Wales, to support the collection of business rates
- compiling and maintaining lists of bandings of some 23 million domestic properties in England and 1.3 million in Wales, to support the collection of council tax
- determining local housing allowance across 153 Broad Rental Market Areas in England, providing some 714,000 rental assessments for housing benefit purposes and registering some 78,000 Rent Act 1977 fair rents in England
- advising Ministers on property valuation matters
- providing valuation advice and services to the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government
- providing valuation advice to HMRC in connection with capital gains tax, inheritance tax and other compliance work
- delivering a range of statutory and non-statutory valuation and estate surveying services to central and local government and the wider public sector.
How your bill is calculated (3 mins) A clear demonstration of what is used to work out what you actually pay in business rates.
How we value pubs (2 mins) To get a fair valuation of pubs, we look at trade levels. This video shows what we take into account.
How we value using rents (2 mins) Most properties - shops, offices, industrial premises and so on - are valued this way. See how.
How we measure your property (2 mins) A look at what we take into account to get the right measurements
How zoning works (2 mins) Confused by zone A, zone B etc? This video explains it really simply.