As you may know, the Agency has recently announced some changes aimed at improving its service to customers and to take account of an expected reduction in the level of government funding. The plans include more centralisation of routine processing functions; better management of data; a reduction in the space the Agency occupies through digitisation of records; and, the introduction of more flexible ways of working for staff supported by enhanced technology. Over the last three years the Agency has progressively set out its vision for the VOA to become a world-class organisation in the provision of valuation services to the public sector. At the heart of this vision is building customer satisfaction - from business ratepayers, council taxpayers, billing authorities, and other stakeholders and customers. Over the next three years we propose to make further improvements to the way we work, building on changes we have already made. Improving value for money means ensuring that we make the very best use of all the resources at our disposal. We are clear that as technology and working methods move on, opportunities open up to reduce our accommodation footprint. We are therefore intending to make some changes to our office network.
We will continue to be represented in most of our current 86 locations across England, Wales and Scotland - though we will seek to reduce our floor space take where we can. However, in a small number of cases we believe that the sensible business option is to close the office and conduct our operations from another of our nearby sites. The offices involved are Stockport, Durham, Harrogate, Kidderminster, Newport and Chester - and also New Court here in London, from which we expect to move to premises already on our estate at Wingate House in Shaftesbury Avenue. It is unlikely that these changes will be implemented prior to March 2009, because of the need for formal consultation with our staff and other detailed planning.
The Agency has considered the potential impact of these changes on all our customers carefully and believe that the direct impact will be minimal, since there are relatively few face-to-face meetings in most of our offices. Mainly we visit ratepayers or council taxpayers at their premises or homes, which we will continue to do wherever appropriate, or we discuss issues on the telephone or increasingly by email. We will of course ensure that meetings with agent, with billing authorities and for that matter the NRF, continue to be held at mutually convenient locations. Overall, the changes will help us improve customer service within our future budgets.
A press release was issued on 19 November and is available at
<http://www.voa.gov.uk/news/press07/news_release_19_11_07.htm>
Best regards
Tony
Tony Capp
Data Strategy and Special Projects
Valuation Office Agency
New Court
Carey Street
London
WC2A 2JE
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