BA bulletins and sharing intelligence about pending reductions on purpose built doctors surgeries (Bulletins 7 & 8 England & Wales)

LOCAL AUTHORITY COVID-19 BULLETIN ISSUE 7

Welcome to the seventh Local Authority COVID-19 Bulletin.

Weekly bulletins

Our bulletins are designed to update you with news on our services and processes.  They are written with Billing Authorities in mind so, whilst we are happy you use the information to support customers, please do not forward wider than your authority or service providers.

General advice on our services

The majority of Non Domestic and Council Tax reports are being registered within 5 working days of receipt.

We are maintaining our target of clearing 95% of reports within 90 working days and continue to prioritise hardship and COVID-19 cases, clearing them as quickly as we can.

We continue to manage queries electronically via our Contact Form. We are following advice from government and are considering how we will support social distancing in all of our work, including our customer service centres. We will share more information as it becomes available.

Like yourselves, we have seen a marked increase in contact. To improve response times for our customers, we have moved further resource to this area of work. We continue to work hard in responding to your enquiries as soon as we are able, supporting you and our shared customers.

Submission of reports

Please continue to submit reports when customers inform you of changes.  Receiving reports from you is the most efficient method of updating the rating list and enables us to triage and progress work promptly. 

As we are all currently unable to visit properties, it is important to receive up-to-date contact details to enable us to discuss property details with the occupier.  If you are speaking to occupiers, please let them know that we may require plans and other information about their property, to be able to progress their request.

Please continue to note in remarks if the case is COVID-19 related and we will prioritise.

Temporary reference numbers

We know that you have seen an increase in the use of temporary reference numbers and that this creates extra work for us both.

We are raising an increasing number of reports to insert or split assessments, and we need to request a reference number from you. We recognise how important it is to action these reports quickly and we would appreciate your help by actioning requests for reference numbers within 24 hours. 

Please could you confirm the contact email address or telephone number you would like us to use when we request reference numbers from you.  This information will ensure we direct requests for reference numbers to the right place, avoiding delay or the use of a temporary number.  Please email baenquiries@voa.gsi.gov.uk and we will share with the teams working on these report types.

Settlement Codes for 2017 Cases

Authorities signed up to the revised Information Sharing Protocol and Agreement documents are receiving monthly datasets of cumulative check and challenge information; following enquiries from some authorities we thought it useful to clarify the settlement codes.

If you have anything specific you would like us to cover in future bulletins or you would like more information about our revised Information Sharing Protocols and Agreements and the enhanced datasets, please contact your Local Authority Relationship Manager.

Local Authority Engagement Team

14 May 2020

LOCAL AUTHORITY COVID-19 BULLETIN ISSUE 7

Welcome to the seventh Local Authority COVID-19 Bulletin.

Weekly bulletins

Our bulletins are designed to update you with news on our services and processes.  They are written with Billing Authorities in mind so, whilst we are happy you use the information to support customers, please do not forward wider than your authority or service providers.

General advice on our services

The majority of Non Domestic and Council Tax reports are being registered within 5 working days of receipt.

We are maintaining our target of clearing 95% of reports within 90 working days and continue to prioritise hardship and COVID-19 cases, clearing them as quickly as we can.

We continue to manage queries electronically via our Contact Form. We are following advice from government and are considering how we will support social distancing in all of our work, including our customer service centres. We will share more information as it becomes available.

Like yourselves, we have seen a marked increase in contact. To improve response times for our customers, we have moved further resource to this area of work. We continue to work hard in responding to your enquiries as soon as we are able, supporting you and our shared customers.

Submission of reports

Please continue to submit reports when customers inform you of changes.  Receiving reports from you is the most efficient method of updating the rating list and enables us to triage and progress work promptly. 

As we are all currently unable to visit properties, it is important to receive up-to-date contact details to enable us to discuss property details with the occupier.  If you are speaking to occupiers, please let them know that we may require plans and other information about their property, to be able to progress their request.

Please continue to note in remarks if the case is COVID-19 related and we will prioritise.

Temporary reference numbers

We know that you have seen an increase in the use of temporary reference numbers and that this creates extra work for us both.

We are raising an increasing number of reports to insert or split assessments, and we need to request a reference number from you. We recognise how important it is to action these reports quickly and we would appreciate your help by actioning requests for reference numbers within 24 hours. 

Please could you confirm the contact email address or telephone number you would like us to use when we request reference numbers from you.  This information will ensure we direct requests for reference numbers to the right place, avoiding delay or the use of a temporary number.  Please email baenquiries@voa.gsi.gov.uk and we will share with the teams working on these report types.

Local Authority Engagement Team

14 May 2020

                            LOCAL AUTHORITY COVID-19

                                      BULLETIN ISSUE 8

Welcome to the eighth Local Authority COVID-19 Bulletin.

Weekly bulletins

We hope you are finding these bulletins useful.  Going forward, we will only issue a bulletin when we have important information and updates to share with you.

As always, if there is anything you would like us to cover in these publications please let us know via ratesretention@voa.gsi.gov.uk.

Confirming the date ratepayers made contact with us

We have received numerous requests from Billing Authorities asking for the date a ratepayer contacted us requesting an alteration to the Rating List. We appreciate you are probably seeking this information to assist in administering small business grant requests.

Unfortunately, grants and other schemes which provide this type of financial support are not a qualifying purpose to allow the disclosure of information through the Local Authority Gateway or any other gateway. This means we are not legally able to provide you with the information you are requesting.

We are keen to help authorities wherever possible and your Local Authority Relationship Manager is always happy to discuss any issues that you may want to raise or offer guidance on what help we are able to give. 

Sharing advice for customers making COVID-19 Material Change of Circumstances (MCC) for Checks and Challenges

We thought it would be useful to share advice that customers might need when submitting a Check leading to a Challenge in relation to COVID-19 MCCs:

An Interested Person (IP) needs to identify if it is to ‘update property details to reflect a change’ (internal MCC) or a ‘change in the local area’ (external MCC). In most cases, it is likely that a ‘change in the local area’ is the main reason, so this should be the option selected.

It is possible to make a proposal (Challenge) on the grounds of an internal and/or external MCCs following a single Check, regardless of the reason selected at the time the Check was made. Therefore it is not necessary for an IP to submit multiple Checks.

There are different time periods after making a Check confirmation for making internal (4 months) or external (16 months) MCC proposals (Challenges). The time period is determined by the grounds of the proposal, not the Check.

Quick reminder of our mailboxes

Please only use the email addresses below. The email addresses below are for your use only so please do not pass on to customers.

Your Local Authority Relationship Managers are available and can be contacted as usual  using Ratesretention@voa.gsi.gov.uk

Local Authority Engagement Team

21 May 2020

Welsh version below.

 LOCAL AUTHORITY COVID-19

                                      BULLETIN ISSUE 8

Welcome to the eighth Local Authority COVID-19 Bulletin.

Weekly bulletins

We hope you are finding these bulletins useful.  Going forward, we will only issue a bulletin when we have important information and updates to share with you. As always, if there is anything you would like us to cover in these publications please let us know via ratesretention@voa.gsi.gov.uk.

Confirming the date ratepayers made contact with us

We have received numerous requests from Billing Authorities asking for the date a ratepayer contacted us requesting an alteration to the Rating List. We appreciate you are probably seeking this information to assist in administering small business grant requests.

Unfortunately, grants and other schemes which provide this type of financial support are not a qualifying purpose to allow the disclosure of information through the Local Authority Gateway or any other gateway. This means we are not legally able to provide you with the information you are requesting.

We are keen to help authorities wherever possible and your Local Authority Relationship Manager is always happy to discuss any issues that you may want to raise or offer guidance on what help we are able to give. 

Quick reminder of our mailboxes

Please only use the email addresses below. The email addresses below are for your use only so please do not pass on to customers.

Your Local Authority Relationship Managers are available and can be contacted as usual using Ratesretention@voa.gsi.gov.uk

Local Authority Engagement Team

21 May 2020