Sir Michael Lyons has revealed the findings of his inquiry into local government and has called for a full revaluation of all domestic properties. In addition, Sir Michael has called for the introduction of regular revaluations at intervals of no more than five years and new bands for council tax.

On business rates he has asked the Government to retain the national structure at present but called on them to look at long term reforms including localisation.

RICS view

Household Taxation and Local Charges
The Lyons final report supports RICS' recommendation relating to the revaluation of all domestic properties for council tax.

RICS is of the opinion that revaluation is well over due and that this should be one of the Government's priority. For council tax to be fair and transparent it is essential that the information used is up to date.

Further deferment of revaluation will only make its introduction more difficult as the changes in value resulting from any revaluation will be greater as the time between revaluation increases.

The report also supports our recommendation for regular and consistent revaluations of no more than 5 years and this reinforces the necessity for revaluation to take place as soon as possible and the priority it should be given by the Government.

RICS supports the introduction of additional bands at the top and bottom of the current structure as this would enable fairer redistribution of the council tax burden and we also support the introduction of separate bands for Inner London to reflect the unique shape of the property market.

We support the recommendation to abolish the saving limits in council tax benefits for pensioners.

RICS are in favour of investigating further taxes for domestic waste collection and also recommend possible taxes for parking and landfill.

Business Taxation
The RICS supports the retention of the RPI cap on the national level of business rates as this is an important safeguard, ensuring stability and predictability for businesses.

We also support the introduction of supplementary local rates, we recommend that businesses have a say in the matter and that the revenue is hypothecated to purposes likely to benefit businesses in the locality.

However we do not support the localisation of business rates and strongly recommend that business rates remain on a national basis as this ensures stability and predictability which is desirable for all businesses.

We strongly recommend that the Non-Domestic Business Rate (NDR) is not relocalised and we are also against local income and sales taxes as we see these as unworkable.

For further details contact: publicaffairs@rics.org