The Institute’s Revenues and Enforcement Conference report
Transcript of The Institute’s Revenues and Enforcement Conference report
INSIGHT
INSIDE: Housing exposed • Customer service • News & events • Data analysis • Viewpoint
August 2015 £6.50 www.irrv.net
ISSN
136
1-13
05
The monthly journal of the Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation
John Roberts reports from Keele, as the great and the good in revenues and enforcement gathered once again to put their world to rights
The Institute’sRevenues and EnforcementConference report
Editor’s welcomeRegular items
John Roberts IRRV (Hons) is Managing Editor of the Institute’s magazines
The editorial team and myself sincerely hope that you’ve had the chance to take a well-earned break by the time you read our latest offering – or if not we hope that you have one planned. However, whether you have or not, we’re here to keep you up to date with the latest news and opinion from your chosen profession.
This month, our cover feature homes in on another successful IRRV event. Keele University once again played host, this time to the Revenues and Enforcement Conference, and we bring you highlights.Of course there’s no substitute for being there, but as ever, we’re on hand to ensure that you’re aware of the issues that our delegates were able to participate in. As ever, a key aspect of the event was the exhibition, and we are pleased to report that this edition also plays host to several of our commercial partners who continue to support these key events.
We are also pleased to introduce another new contributor, David Garnett, who reveals his expertise in the subject of housing policy. This continues our theme of providing material of interest to readers across the strands of our profession, and we look forward to further contributions from David in future issues.
Turning to our regular contributors, this edition includes articles from expert benefit commentators Phil Adlard and Geoff Fimister, and the welfare reform agenda is also the subject of Moira Hepworth’s Faculty Board feature, illustrating how our faculties keep on top of the fast-moving legislative change process.
As liability order costs grab the headlines, barrister Alan Murdie has spotted a lesser-known case which illustrates once again how local authorities need to take extreme care when entering the minefield of the courts to pursue the holy grail of high collection rates. This and much more – read on and enjoy!
“Welcome to the August edition of Insight.”
What’s in the next issue... • Jim McCafferty and friends preview
the Scottish Conference
• the IRRV and Critiqom present their business rate billing white paper
• the world of technology through the eyes of Simon Bailey.
A message from the Deputy Chief Executive.
Log in to ‘magazines’ in themember area of www.irrv.net to hear the message online.
Chief Executive’s notes 05
News and events 06
Wales Conference report 08
Education and membership 09
New examination syllabus 11
Daisy’s diary 12
From the archives 13
Faculty Board report 14
Benefits bulletin 15
Valuation matters 16
Credit notes 20
Back office processing 21
Collection & enforcement 22
Management 25
Data anaylsis 28
Customer service 29
Legal view 30
Doherty’s despatch 33
Viewpoint 34
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Follow us on Twitter David Magor on Twitter Gary Watson on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Presidents Blog
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©IRRV 2015. Reproduction in whole or in part of any article is prohibited without prior written consent. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of theInstitute. Whilst all due care is taken regarding the accuracy of information, no responsibility can be accepted for errors. Any advice given does not constitute a legal opinion.
Cover story 18The Institute’s Revenues andEnforcement Conference reportJohn Roberts reports from Keele
Feature 26
Housing exposedDavid Garnett explores the changing role of today’s housing association
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IRRV INSIGHT
Managing Editor
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August 2015 ISSN 1361-1305
Your IRRV Council:
IRRV PRESIDENT Kevin Stewart FIRRV MAAT MCMI
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Jim McCafferty IRRV (Hons)
David Chapman IRRV (Hons)
Phil Adlard Tech IRRV MlnstLM MCMI
John Clark FIRRV
Ian Ferguson IRRV (Hons)
Louise Freeth FIRRV
Richard Harbord MPhil CPFA FCCA IRRV (Hons) FIDP FBIM FRSA
Gordon Heath BSc IRRV (Hons)
Carla-Maria Heath BA IRRV (Hons)
Paul McDermott IRRV (Hons)
Maureen Neave Tech IRRV
Nick Rowe IRRV (Hons)
Alistair Townsend IRRV (Hons) MCMI
Alan Bronte FRICS IRRV (Hons)
Mary Hardman IRRV (Hons) FRICS MCMI
Kerry Macdermott IRRV (Hons)
Roger Messenger BSc (Est Man) FRICS FIRRV MCIArb REV
Bob Trahern IRRV (Hons)
HONORARY TREASURER Allan Traynor FCCA IRRV (Hons)
Robert Brown BSc FRICS FIRRV
Angela Storey Tech IRRV MCMI
JUNIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Follow us on Twitter David Magor on Twitter Gary Watson on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Presidents Blog
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David Magor OBE IRRV (Hons) is Chief Executive of the Institute
The CentreForum is an independent, liberal think tank seeking
to develop evidence-based policy solutions to the problems
facing Britain. In their report, ‘Moving beyond the mansion
tax’, they have put forward a series of ideas on developing and
modernising the council tax. Whilst the research reflects their
liberal aims and values, it does tend to be evidence-based
rather than the dogma delivered by similar bodies.
In the report they recommend, unsurprisingly, that proposals
for a mansion tax be dropped. Instead, they advocate the
establishment of a Royal Commission with the task of
considering the appropriate balance of taxes on property,
and the merits of moving partly or wholly to the taxation of
economic rent on land.
Interestingly it is their short term suggestions that are worthy
of consideration. They suggest that rather than introduce a new
property tax that fits uncomfortably alongside existing taxes,
the government should reform the council tax to make it a flat
rate tax on the value of domestic properties. They believe that:
• local authorities should be free to set their own rate
• all revenue on property values below £2 million should be
retained locally
• all revenue on property values above £2 million should be
pooled by all local authorities and redistributed among them
• central government funding to local authorities should be
reduced in line with the additional revenue raised locally.
The body also recommends that residents be permitted to
defer payment of their tax until their property changes hands
through sale or transfer and this should be guaranteed by
billing authorities placing a ‘charge on the land’ to cover both
the deferred tax and any interest. Local authorities should be
free to borrow against this asset to smooth revenue.
Needless to say, the government’s response to the report
repeated the normal Department for Communities and Local
Government mantra, saying that, “the government would
work with town halls to keep council tax down for residents,
and would continue to place a cap on increases that can
be implemented without a local referendum.” They further
stated that, “over the past five years, average council tax bills
in England have fallen by 11% in real terms, giving families
greater financial security, and this government will seek to
continue this trend by working with councillors to deliver
high quality and value for money services for the people
they serve.”
The reality is that the council tax needs a revaluation and a
programme of modernisation before it is beyond saving and
reports like the contribution from CentreForum attempt to
stimulate the debate.
Chief Executive’s notes
“They suggest that rather than introduce a new property tax that fits uncomfortably alongside existing taxes, the government should reform the council tax to make it a flat rate tax on the value of domestic properties.”
Yet another independent report warns that it would be wrong to forget the council tax, says David Magor
The council tax is alive and well and still generates interesting and thought provoking research, such as a recent report from the CentreForum.
5IRRV Membership Become a member of the largest professional institution operating in the field of revenues, benefits and valuation www.irrv.net
David Magor on Twitter
THE FINALISTS ARE:Revenues Team of the Year1 Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council
2 East Lothian Council
3 Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
4 Southwark London Borough Council
5 Tewkesbury Borough Council
Excellence in Debt Management1 Agiliys Ltd, JBW Group and
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
2 Liverpool City Council
3 SUMA
Excellence in Innovation (Single Organisation)1 City of Edinburgh Council
2 Lambeth London Borough Council
3 Marston Holdings (Marston)
4 Perth and Kinross Council
5 South Staffordshire Council
Benefits Team of the Year1 Angus Council
2 East Riding of Yorkshire Council
3 Southend on Sea Borough Council
4 Southwark London Borough Council
5 Tewkesbury Borough Council
Excellence in Innovation (Joint Organisations)1 Cofely and North Tyneside Council
2 EK Services
3 Fortunatus Housing Solutions
4 Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes
Service Partnership
5 Mouchel Business Services and
Middlesbrough Council
Excellence in Partnership Working1 EK Services
2 Glasgow City Council and CapacityGrid
3 Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes
Service Partnership
4 Northgate Public Services
Most Improved Team of the Year1 Angus Council
2 Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Council
3 Haringey London Borough Council
4 Newham London Borough Council
5 Oxford City Council
Excellence in Social Inclusion1 Lambeth London Borough Council
2 Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes
Service Partnership
3 Oxford City Council
4 Perth and Kinross Council
5 South Staffordshire Council
Excellence in Staff Development1 Mouchel Business Services
2 Marston Holdings (Marston)
3 Oxford City Council
4 Valuation Office Agency
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News and events
Latest news
Valuation Tribunal President steps downProfessor Graham Zellick steps down as President of the Valuation Tribunal on 12th August 2015. Professor Zellick was appointed by the Lord Chancellor as the first President and took up office on 1st January 2009.The Professor will continue with his
other judicial work as a member of the
Investigatory Powers Tribunal and, after a
break, intends to return to legal writing and
to participate in legal and constitutional
debates in a way that is not possible for the
holder of a salaried judicial post.
Insight wishes to take this opportunity
to offer
Professor
Zellick very
best wishes
for the
future.
A reet good do!President Kevin Stewart is photographed with Yorkshire and District President Vic Dockree as the pair take a break from the festivities at the recent Association dinner dance. ( Photo courtesy of Robert Brown)
Jane RatcliffeInsight readers will be saddened to hear that former Council member, conference speaker and magazine contributor Jane Ratcliffe died recently, following a long and brave battle with cancer. Friend and former colleague Tanya Bandekar provides this fitting tribute.I first got to know Jane when she came to
South Norfolk Council in the early 90s. Having
been used to calling my old boss ‘sir’, it was
a bit of a quandary for me, as I wasn’t sure I
could call her madam! It seemed disrespectful
to call her Jane... so I settled for Mrs Ratcliffe.
Jane was like a breath of fresh air. The
council was quite set in its ways, stuffy and
serious. Jane taught us to respect the customer
and to always put them first. Over the years
this became embedded in us and the council
gained respect for the way it engaged with
and involved the community. And I know I am
not alone in saying that the great ‘customer service ethos’ that Jane instilled in those who
worked for her allowed us to become better,
more tolerant and kinder people. Jane was also
a great listener, and a mentor for those who
needed it when things got tough.
However Jane was very ambitious, and her
sights had always been set on becoming a
Chief Executive – rare for someone coming up
through the revenues and benefits field. Jane
moved on to Colchester, then Redbridge and
finally to Great Yarmouth Borough Council,
when in 2013 she finally achieved her dream
role. She had great plans for the Borough,
and achieved many things in her time there,
working in so many deprived areas to make
a difference. But her time there was cut short
by illness, which she bore with great humility
and little anger. She set herself goals along the
way after her first diagnosis, but sadly couldn’t
achieve them all.
I remember her taking me out for a birthday
lunch the week before she fell ill, with no
signs of what was to come. We often went
out, chatted and put the world to right. I’m
going to miss those chats! Jane was my boss,
but she also became a great friend, and we
shared many happy times socialising, and our
many trips to Goa, which she loved. I have two
abiding memories from these trips which I will
share... although Jane will kill me!
The first one was after we had done our
usual shopping spree in Gatwick airport, wait-
ing for our flight, and Jane had bought a cro-
cheted sunhat to wear. We used to walk to the
end of the road that we stayed on to get a taxi,
and this particular day we got into Su’s taxi for
a trip. I know Su
well. As we got in,
he asked me who
it was that was
with me – was it
my mother?! I thought Jane was going to kill
him – there is less than two years between
us... and she didn’t wear the hat again!
The second time – well, you had to be there
really. Jane and I had been to a restaurant and
were a little bit merry. It was close by, so we
were walking home. In those days the ‘shops’ were little stalls made from bamboo cane and
string, with their wares hung up and on table
tops. I was one side of the road and Jane on the
other. When I looked up she was sat in a rope
chair that was strung up between two poles.
What Jane hadn’t realised was that the rope was
holding up the stall! In slow motion I turned
round and the whole shop was collapsing. The
shop owner came running out, waving at Jane
to get out of the chair, at which point the rope
snapped and she sat on the floor laughing!
I couldn’t move. I was laughing too much I
couldn’t even go and pick her up. Sorry, Jane!
Jane leaves behind her husband Bob, son
Jeremy and her grandchildren. She will be
greatly missed by those of us that had the
privilege to know her.
Tanya Bandekar
News of members Institute news
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KornerDear reader,I will be in the final months of my year as President by the time you read this article. It has been a year of wonderful highlights with so many memories, albeit with one massive tragic low, as you will recall. The warmth and support, though, that has been extended to me throughout this year has been incredible and something I’ll never ever forget – thank you so much! I really hope that I have inspired others to not only retain their membership of the Institute and support their local Association but also seek office on the Institute’s Council, and one day even to be National President themselves. If I have done this, it really will please me, as I continue to meet so many amazing and capable people.
I continue to be fully appreciative of the support of my current employer, Luton Borough Council. This is not only in respect of my role this year but also the Institute itself. For example, Luton has eleven members of staff currently undertaking their IRRV Level 3 Certificate exams, with more looking to do it next year. My toes and fingers are crossed, but to have a large number from my employing authority qualify in my Presidential year would be a huge personal legacy for me, highlighting the support from the
council and my colleagues. I would though like to take the opportunity
to wish all students who undertook their exams in June 2015 good luck – the results are due to released at 9.30am on Wednesday 26th August 2015 on the IRRV website. I then hope to see at least a few of you – the Diploma passes and the prize winners – in Telford at this year’s Annual Conference in October. As prize winners you may even get to go on stage with me to receive your prize!
The Association dinners across the country have all been very different this year but such enjoyable occasions for both my partner Liz and me. At the time of writing, I have just been to the Revenues and Enforcement Conference and the Welsh Conference. The events too have made me feel very welcome and I surprised many in the audience at Llandrindod Wells last week by trying to start and finish the opening presentation in Welsh! The bar has been set for next year’s President – my good friend Jim McCafferty – who I’m sure will do a great job himself with the chain when I hand over the reigns of power to him in Telford on the evening of 7th October 2015.
Yours, Kevin
It’s time to begin the ‘thank you process’, says Kevin Stewart, as the Presidential year starts to draw to a close
Check out Kevin’s blog on: http://irrv-president.blogspot.co.uk/
Kevi
n’s
President’s Blog
David Graaff joins JBW GroupRegular Insight contributor David Graaff has joined the executive board of key IRRV sponsor and exhibition partner JBW Group as Business Development Director.David joins JBW after having spent his
thirty year career working within public
service, both in authorities such as Waltham
Forest as an Assistant Director and as an
outsourced partner and consultant with
Agilisys. David will
be responsible for
governance, new
business strategy and
the delivery of the
sales, bid and marketing
functions of JBW. He
holds an MBA in supply
chain management from
the Lean Enterprise
Research Centre at the University of Wales
and is a member of both the IRRV and the
Chartered Institute of Purchasing.
IRRV PERFORMANCE AWARDS 2015
IRRVAnnual Conference,
Exhibition and Performance AwardsGala Dinner, Telford
6th – 8th October 2015Book now onwww.irrv.net
Education and membership
Michael Hopkins is Qualifications and Membership
Manager with the IRRV. Contact him on
[email protected] or 020 7691 8978
New members
We are pleased to announce that the IRRV
has entered into a new initiative with the
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). CIPFA is the
professional accountancy body for public
finance, with members and students working
in the finance function in governments,
including local government, around the
world. CIPFA has agreed to offer Affiliate membership to current and experienced
Honours and Fellow members of IRRV. The
benefits of CIPFA membership include:
• development and support services,
including Management Direct, the leading
resource for leaders, managers and aspiring
managers provided by the Chartered
Management Institute
• CIPFA’s Technical Enquiry Service, providing
specialist technical guidance across the full
spectrum of public financial management
• CIPFA rewards, offering exclusive
discounts on a wide range of products and
services, including holidays, insurance
and entertainment
• networking opportunities through CIPFA’s
local, regional and national networks of
public finance practitioners, and
• access to expertise that will allow you to
build on the knowledge acquired through
your IRRV qualification and keep up to date
with the latest developments in the world
of public finance, through training courses,
journals and magazines and daily public
finance news.
More information about the benefits of
CIPFA membership may be found at
www.cipfa.org/members/benefits-2015
All of the above, along with existing IRRV
membership benefits, adds up to a major
career-enhancing package.
Affiliate membership of CIPFA is available
to IRRV Honours and Fellow members in
good standing who have five or more years
of experience in public service. Affiliates
may use the designatory letters CIPFA (Affil).
Some IRRV members who have particularly
extensive, in-depth experience in public
finance, may apply for full membership of
Michael Hopkins introduces a new initiative designed to offer IRRV members affiliation with CIPFA and more
CIPFA and become a Chartered Public
Finance Accountant.
The IRRV is seeking to discuss further with
CIPFA a more precise definition of the ‘in-depth’ experience that is sought for promotion
to full CIPFA membership status. For the
present, however, applicants should apply for
Affiliate membership, and if they feel that they
have significant public accounting and reporting
experience should submit a separate request
to CIPFA at the membership email address
below, again with a CV, stressing their specific
experience in public finance areas.
Affiliate members pay a subscription of £155
p.a. and full members pay £310 p.a. However
we have negotiated a special arrangement with
CIPFA so that applications approved during
2015 will pay no membership fee for this year.
As with the IRRV, the CIPFA membership year
runs from 1st January to 31st December.
Applicants for Affiliate membership should
visit http://www.cipfa.org/Forms/Accelerated-Membership-Form-2015 then
complete the application form, attach an up
to date CV that demonstrates the requisite
public service experience and submit online
Institute staff will liaise with CIPFA to ensure
that applicants’ status with the IRRV is valid
and current.
We do encourage you to consider taking
up this offer, as it provides a new opportunity
to strengthen the work you do to support the
provision of public services. Enquiries about
the CIPFA/IRRV scheme should be directed to
[email protected] quoting your IRRV
membership number, or if you have further
queries or thoughts from an IRRV perspective
please contact [email protected]
Latest vocational qualification successes
Congratulations to everyone!!
LEVEL 3 QCF BENEFITS PATHWAY
TITLE EMPLOYER
Lee Brown Stour Valley Partnership
David Hounsell Mouchel Shared Services
LEVEL 3 QCF REVENUES PATHWAY
TITLE EMPLOYER
Christine Booth Sefton Metropolitan BC
Emma L Clifford Cotswold DC IRRVAnnual Conference,
Exhibition and Performance AwardsGala Dinner, Telford
6th – 8th October 2015Book now onwww.irrv.net
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Wales ConferenceMoira Hepworth reports from Llandrindod Wells, where the IRRV’s Wales Conference was once again the place to be.Association Presidents David Owens (North
and Mid-Wales) and Janice Jenkins (South
and West Wales) hosted this year’s Wales
Conference, welcoming IRRV President Kevin
Stewart, to open the conference.
Kevin commented on the scale and pace
of change affecting local government. He
highlighted that revenues, benefits and
valuation were some of the biggest change
areas and that there was no reason to believe
that the next few years would be any different.
The speed of the austerity programme
would no doubt increase, with some welfare
benefits likely to bear the brunt of cuts. Kevin
wondered if the council tax reduction schemes
would be able to continue in the face of
cutbacks. He also conjectured that in the mid-
term, the system of grant funding would “go
away completely”, leaving a very different local
government system in the wake of it.
Immediate Past President of the Institute, Richard Harbord, shared his
thoughts on the General Election outcome and
its impact on local authorities, finding it difficult
to be upbeat about what he saw happening
to local government. With economic growth
forecast to decrease, a reduction in public
expenditure to around 35% of GDP would
further raise the share of welfare within public
expenditure. Expenditure on the NHS required
urgent long-term reform, with procurement of
major contracts in that service being just one
area that needed prompt and major attention.
“The more that went into the NHS, the less
there was for local government”, he warned.
There was little talk nationally about the
effects on local government of the proposed
£12bn expenditure, but the cuts in place were
already biting hard. Across the UK, emergency
payment demands outstripped supply. Business
rates retention posed significant problems,
making realistic forecasts was a daunting
process, and many authorities had little or no
chance of growing their business rates, which
would give rise to marked disparities.
Richard went through various examples of
recent voluntary reorganisations and concluded
that he was unconvinced that it was an
appropriate response to the current austerity
measures – “looking back, claims on savings
on reorganisation are rarely borne out, and
such moves should be faced with caution”,
he concluded.
Clare Elliot, Deputy Director of the Housing Delivery Division at DWP,
provided a comprehensive update on housing
benefit matters. Housing benefit was an
important matter for DWP, because it was
going to be in operation for some considerable
time to come. For a significant proportion of
families the benefit comprises the majority
of their expenditure. A report by Shelter in
2014 found that most families were one pay
cheque away from losing their home, so it was
essential that system changes were handled
extremely carefully – that was what DWP
intended to do. £24bn had been paid out
in housing benefits in the last financial year,
which was ‘off the scale’ when compared to
state pension payments.
Clare stated that DWP are looking at ways
to develop the understanding of claimant
behaviour, and explore how this can be used
to improve claimant engagement by reviewing
the HB new claim customer journey, which
has helped to identify the key area of risk –
the integrated claim process used to transfer
information from DWP to local authorities.
DWP are also working with Behavioural
Insights Team to explore a number of insights
from behavioural science to encourage people
to report changes in circumstances in a
timelier and more honest way. In furtherance
of this, they are working with Canterbury
City Council (on behalf of Canterbury,
Thanet and Dover councils) to introduce
Behavioural Insight techniques to change
HB claimant behaviour.
Ritchie Roberts, Chief Valuer Wales and Valuation Officer for NDR Wales, provided
an interesting session on business rates
valuation. An estimated 66% of non domestic
properties are rented in Wales and the rental
information comes from the forms of return,
the Valuation Office Ratepayer Contact Scheme
and HMRC, who provide details of sales and
leases that are for periods longer than seven
years. In general terms, there had been a
downward shift in primary retail locations, but
secondary locations had held their values,
mainly due to rent free periods and incentives
– in some cases secondary sites were higher
in assessment than the primary locations in the
same areas. Out of town retail parks were also
doing well, but ‘first generation’ retail parks
were not faring as well as later parks. There
had been some counter-intuitive swings in
values in some areas, with rates assessments
going up whereas rents had gone down –
Ritchie speculated that possibly assessments
had been too low in these areas in the last
revaluation. His staff had made extra efforts
this time round to get rental information and
he urged authorities to help in the provision of
relevant information.
David Airey gave a scene-setting summary
of how the enforcement changes of a year ago
were bedding in. In general there had been a
smooth transition to the new arrangements.
He observed that there had been a rise in
the number of internal enforcement agents
as a consequence of the changes. David then
joined Anne-Marie Goddard of the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ), CIVEA Director General Vernon
Phillips and the IRRV’s David Magor for a
panel session. The audience supported the
comments made by the panel regarding the
‘beat the bailiff’ websites that had multiplied
over the year; that they were ‘provocative and fonts of falsehood’, often charging for
bad advice. Whilst the MoJ were unable to do
anything about the sites themselves, Anne-
Marie agreed that the counterbalance was to
get the correct information out in the public
domain about enforcement actions.
Conference Report
News and events Login to IRRV Member Area
Moira Hepworth is the Institute’s
Policy and Research Manager
Education and membership
STUDENT MEMBERSNAME EMPLOYER
Scott Wilkinson Blackpool Council
Liam Dewsbury Epsom and Ewell BC
Louise Batt Walsall Metropolitan BC
Karen Bick Walsall Metropolitan BC
Andrew Bishop Walsall Metropolitan BC
Emily Bishop Walsall Metropolitan BC
Frances Brady Walsall Metropolitan BC
Beverly Bramall Walsall Metropolitan BC
Gurdish Kaur Walsall Metropolitan BC
Maureen Knowles Walsall Metropolitan BC
Zara Nelson Walsall Metropolitan BC
David Ralph Walsall Metropolitan BC
Sarah Stewart Walsall Metropolitan BC
QCF MEMBERS NAME EMPLOYER
Brittany Barber Kings Lynn & West Norfolk BC
Jo Hourican Milton Keynes Council
Kyle Jason Milton Keynes Council
Lorraine Whittle Milton Keynes Council
HONORARY MEMBERS NAME
Mark Shepherd The University of Manchester
Michelle Smithson Durham County Council
Richard Seaman Goldsmith and Co
Rachel McAviney Gosport Borough Council
New members
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IRRV Membership Become a member of the largest professional institution operating in the field of revenues, benefits and valuation www.irrv.net
Education and membership New examination syllabus
It is a number of years since the Institute
reviewed its examination syllabus. Since
that time, the profession has changed
considerably and many requests have
been made to review the content of the
syllabus. Having considered the feedback
from practitioners and their employers, a
new syllabus has now been agreed and
this will be launched in September.
The syllabus retains the three stages to
achieving the professional qualif ication;
these being Level 3 Certificate,
Diploma and Honours. Whilst Honours
remains unaf fected, the changes to Level
3 Cer tif icate and Diploma are designed
to at tract more students to study for the
technician qualif ication, whilst a structure
for ensuring a smooth transition to
obtaining the diploma qualif ication has
been created.
All three streams are now catered for
at both Level 3 Cer tif icate and Diploma;
something that does not exist at present.
Fur thermore, students will now be able
to sit subjects that are far more relevant
to their chosen career path (i.e. a benefit
practitioner will not now have to study
Non-Domestic Rating Law).
A webinar is to be recorded that will
set out the changes and explain in much
more detail how the syllabus will operate.
This will be held on the IRRV website, with
the link being sent to all members. Details
of the courses being delivered by IRRV HQ
to achieve the professional qualif ication
under the new syllabus can be found on
the opposite page.
We recognise the need to advise active
students as soon as possible (whether
they be currently studying or waiting for
results) on how the changes will impact
on their studies. Each student will be
contacted individually in August to advise
them on where they now fit into the
current syllabus. This process will be
completed by the end of August.
All enquiries on the changes should
be addressed to Michael Hopkins at
Gary L Watson, Deputy Chief Executive
of the IRRV
Gary Watson provides details of the new examination syllabus, recently launched by the Institute
IRRV Distance Learning
T: 020 7691 8984
W: www.distancelearning.org.uk
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IRRV Certificate Level 3
This course is designed for those who wish to gain a professional qualification and further their careers.
Streams available:
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Fee: £1100.00 plus VAT
IRRV Professional Diploma
This course is designed for those who wish to progress to senior positions. The Professional Diploma leads to the highest level qualification, IRRV Honours.
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3 for 2 on multiple enrolments* * This offer is valid on multiple bookings with a minimum of 3 candidates.
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IRRV Level 3 Certificate
Streams available:
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This course is designed for both Revenues and Benefits staff who wish to gain a professional qualification and further their careers.
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The IRRV Level 3 Certificate in Business Rates is designed for staff who deal with Non-Domestic Rates both in the public and private sectors.
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IRRV Professional Diploma
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Special Offer:
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CERTIFICATE
Current position: Level 3 CertificateCouncil Tax Law
Non-Domestic Rating Law
Revenues and Local Taxation
Administration with Fraud
Welfare Benefits
Valuation Tribunal Administrative Justice
Council Tax Law
Non-Domestic Rating Law
Valuation Tribunal Administration
L3 Business RatesBusiness Rates Administration
Non-Domestic Rating Law
Rating Valuation
Valuation Theory and Practice
DIPLOMA
Current position: Centrally Set Assignment
Elective Assignment
Management (2 papers)
Management Case Study
HB & CTR Scheme Administration
and Public Sector Finance
Revenues Administration
and Public Sector Finance
(Choose 1)
Law of Council Tax and
Non-Domestic Rating
Welfare Benefits
(Choose 1)
Proposed position: Level 3 CertificateLevel 3 Assignment
Introduction to Council Tax
Introduction to Enforcement and Insolvency
Introduction to Non-Domestic Rate
Introduction to Welfare Benefits
(Choose 2)
Revenues and Local Taxation Administration
Welfare Benefits Administration
(Choose 1)
L3 Business RatesLevel 3 Assignment
Business Rates Administration
Introduction to Non Domestic Rate
Introduction to Valuation for Rating
Valuation Tribunal Introduction to Council Tax
Introduction to Non-Domestic Rate
Introduction to Valuation for Rating
Valuation Tribunal Administration
and Administrative Justice
Proposed position: Diploma Assignment
Management
Management Case Study
Revenues and Local Taxation Administration
and Public Sector Finance
Valuation for Rating
Welfare Benefits Administration
and Public Sector Finance
(Choose 1)
Council Tax Law & Practice
Enforcement and Insolvency Law and Practice
Law of Property
Non-Domestic Rate Law and Practice
Welfare Benefits Law and Practice
(Choose 1)
Members are invited to contribute towards the feature and come forward with their own personal
memories of the Institute. The Deputy Chief Executive is also happy to try and answer any questions on
the Institute’s history – contact him on [email protected] In addition, copies of previous articles
can be provided on request.
It’s 1897, part five, and Gary Watson’s examination of the minute book provides details of a hectic end to the year
Gary Watson on Twitter
The Executive Committee next met on 4th
December, with Mr George S Ager Esquire in
the chair. Minutes from the meeting held on
16th October were approved and there were
no apologies.
A report of the sub-committee appointed for
the purpose of ascertaining the most suitable
premises for holding the Annual General Meeting
(AGM) and annual dinner was presented and
read. It was resolved that the action of the
sub-committee be approved and the AGM and
annual dinner should take place at the Trocadero
Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus. With Piccadilly
station not opening until 1906, attendees
attending the event were unlikely to travel by
tube to and from the event. Thankfully, the first
taxi service in London, run by the London Electric
Company, became operational in 1897 and was
a mode of transport that could be used.
A letter from the Metropolitan Local Government
(Officers) Association was presented and read,
stating it was their intention to introduce a
Bill into Parliament in the coming session, to
provide for superannuation of metropolitan local
government officers upon the lines laid down in
the Poor Law Officers Superannuation Act 1896.
In the letter, they asked for the Association to
support such a measure.
A further letter from the Secretary to the
Superannuation Conference sent on behalf
of the Municipal Officers Association was
also presented and read, announcing their
intention to again promote their Bill providing
for superannuation to officers in England and
Wales (with the exception of those in the
employment of parish councils). In the letter,
they also asked for the co-operation of the
Association in the matter.
It was resolved that the consideration of the
aforementioned Bills be postponed and that
in the meantime, the Secretary endeavours to
obtain copies of the same.
A letter from the Metropolitan Local
Government (Officers) Association was then
presented and read, inviting the Association to
appoint delegates to confer as to the desirability
and practicability of establishing a Federation
Scheme for all common objects in connection
with metropolitan local government. It was
resolved (upon the motion of Mr Maltby) that the
Chairman, Vice Chairman and Honorary Secretary
be appointed delegates to attend the conference.
A letter from Mr Pollinger (St Marys
Newington) was presented and read, giving
particulars of the recent action against his
Board by the Inland Revenue authorities upon
the question of receipt stamps for rates. In
the letter, he also tendered the resignation
of himself and colleagues as members of the
Association. The Honorary Secretary reported
that he had replied to the aforementioned
communication, regretting the resignation of
the Newington collectors. It was resolved the
action of the Secretary be approved.
With all letters now presented and read, it was
resolved that the Honorary Secretary obtains, as
soon as the same are printed, sufficient copies of
the Government Bill foreshadowed in the recent
speech of Lord Salisbury, and to supply each
member of the Executive with one.
It was then resolved that a sum not exceeding
£11.11/- be expended upon musical talent for
the entertainment at the annual dinner. It was
further resolved that a dinner ticket be sent to
Valentine Goddard Esquire asking if he would
be kind enough to act as toastmaster at the
forthcoming dinner. A ticket was also to be sent
to Mr Foskett (I know not why!).
The meeting then concluded with a vote of
thanks accorded to the Chairman for his able
and impartial conduct in the chair.
The final meeting of the Executive Committee
in 1897 took place on the 18th December, with
Mr George S Ager Esquire in the chair. Minutes
from the meeting held on 4th December were
approved and there were no apologies.
A letter from the Vice Chairman, Mr Hunter,
was presented and read, expressing his regret
at not being present owing to the death of his
little daughter. It was resolved unanimously
that the Secretary writes to Mr Hunter,
regretting the cause of his absence and
expressing on behalf of the Association, their
heartfelt sympathy to Mrs Hunter and himself
in their bereavement.
Turning to the forthcoming annual dinner, it
was resolved that the stewards at the event be
the whole of the Executive (three line whip!)
together with Mr Crane (clearly someone the
Executive could rely upon at such times!).
The Committee then considered the draft
annual report prepared by the Chairman and
Secretary. Following several alterations made
therein, it was resolved that the report, as
amended, be adopted as the report of the
Executive Committee for the year 1897 and
that a copy be sent to every member of the
Association. It was resolved that the thanks of
the Committee be tendered to the Chairman
and Secretary for producing the draft report.
Referring back to the last meeting, it was
resolved that the consideration of the two
superannuation schemes be postponed until
the next meeting of the Committee. In the
meantime, the Secretary should write to Mr
Paget, asking him to furnish copies of the Bill
to be promoted by the Metropolitan Local
Government (Officers) Association.
Finally, it was resolved that the next
meeting of the Committee should take place
on Saturday, 8th January 1898. The meeting
then concluded, with a cordial vote of thanks
accorded to the Chairman for his able and
impartial conduct in the chair.
From the
“ The Honorary Secretary reported that he had replied to the aforementioned communication, regretting the resignation of the Newington collectors.”
Gary L Watson IRRV (Hons) is
Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute
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Daisy’s Diary
example, a policeman. What does the uniform ‘say’? To me it radiates authority, security and protection. Unless someone exposes the policeman as a fraud, I will likely believe without questioning that he is a policeman and that he has authority to keep me secure and protected! If we put the same man in casual clothes I would not believe as easily that he is in fact a policeman with authority. Try it with other uniforms you can think of, and notice the different messages they send.
Now think back to your own style words. Maybe they are ‘powerful’, ‘successful’, ‘dynamic’ ...or ‘approachable, knowledgeable, helpful’? Or maybe ‘competent’, ‘fun’, ‘kind’? No matter what your style words are, your clothes should be like a uniform, transmitting your style words on your behalf. They have to convince your audience that you are in fact powerful, successful and dynamic before you have even said a word.
Of course your style words will change depending on the activities you have planned for the day (for example, reporting at a board meeting requires a different look than being the head of a team meeting or even a fan at your son’s football match) – but they will always be true to your unique identity.
If you have any comments or questions about this article, please feel free to contact me on [email protected] – I look forward to hearing from you. And don’t forget, for any queries regarding your IRRV membership, please continue to use [email protected] – many thanks!
Daisy Schubert is a Membership Officer with the IRRV
Hi everyone and welcome to Daisy’s Diary!
Last month we learned how the choice of colours impacts first impressions. Now we will examine the two objectives of impeccable style – the fit and condition of a garment, as well as the style words or the style statement it conveys.
We all know what happens when a garment is two sizes too big for us – it’s floppy, uncomfortable and drowning! But the same is true for a garment that might be the ‘right’ size, but doesn’t suit our proportions, body shape, scale and line. What effect does an ill-fitted, un-ironed, stained suit or blazer have on the people we meet? If the garment looks floppy, could they subconsciously conclude the same about our character, or our approach to a project we work on?
Next, let’s define our style words! That means we have to think about our personal appearance as communication. What do we want people to think the moment they see us? Depending on your style words you then choose colours, shapes and garments that will convey exactly that message and visually support your professional credibility.
Does that work? Think of typical uniforms, for
This month, Daisy Schubert declares that if our personal appearance is powerful non-verbal communication, what message are you sending?
A London taxi rank in 1897
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If the cap fits then we’ll have to wear it...
The Scottish welfare reform agenda
The recent General Election had everything,
including the twist at the end with the
Conservatives gaining a majority. At times I
thought back to the classic Father Ted episode
where Fathers Ted and Dougal were selected
to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song
Contest, for the reason that Ireland couldn’t
afford to win again so they put forward the
Fathers with a song so bad there was no
way they could win. There was an element
that suggested that neither Dave nor Ed
really wanted to win the election and this
was highlighted by the suggestion that Dave
had two speeches prepared – one resolute
in defeat, the other picking out the positive
lessons learned from the Coalition and how
they would be used for another term!
However, now that all the fuss is over and
Dave is getting over the shock of winning
the election, attention was focussed on the
Queen’s Speech and the announcement of
the programme of legislation that we have to
look forward to.
The item that is of particular interest to us in
revenues and benefits was the mention of the
Full Employment and Welfare Benefits Bill.At the time of writing, there is little detail on
which we can feed but the main elements that
we are aware of are:
• a working-age benefits freeze, and
• lowering the benefit cap.
The first element will not impact us directly,
as the explanation shows:
• the new legislation would freeze the main
rates of the majority of working age benefits,
tax credits and Child Benefit for two years
from 2016 to 2017
• pensioners would be protected, as would
benefits relating to the additional costs
of disability
• statutory payments, such as Statutory
Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay would
also be exempted.
The Benefit Faculty Board regularly receives,
for information, reports on benefits matters
which have been produced by other bodies.
A recent paper of interest comes from the
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’
(COSLA) Executive Group, in which is reviewed
the risks and opportunities with respect to the
recent election of the new UK government,
the position on current stage welfare reform
changes and the prospects for welfare
devolution following the Smith Agreement.
While COSLA states that it has not been
able to prevent the rollout of the full range
of welfare changes, it has reported a number
of successes. It has worked with the Scottish
Government to mitigate the impact of the
reduction of council tax support and ensured
the successful rollout of the Scottish Welfare
Fund by councils across Scotland. It has
also largely achieved full mitigation of the
“bedroom tax” in Scotland. And the report
identifies that COSLA has helped to shape
UK government policy in regard to the local
support necessary to implement Universal
Credit (UC) and key roles for which local
authorities require resourcing - and it has
seen modifications, with alternative payment
arrangements possible for those at risk.
The report highlights that the forecast
scale of further cuts to the income of those
dependent on benefits would put severe
pressure on families and local communities,
as well as placing significant financial pressure
on local government in Scotland. From
a local government perspective, COSLA
expects pressure on the Scottish Welfare
Fund, on Discretionary Housing Payments, on
children’s services, homelessness services,
and increased demand across a range of other
services. Pressure would also be expected on
income streams from rent collection, council
tax collection and charging policies.
COSLA officers will continue to ensure that
there is meaningful engagement around the
implications of UC for local government. Key
On the plus side, it will make year end a bit
easier, in that we won’t have uprating to worry
about! However, the freeze will, in real terms,
result in a reduction in income for those
already with limited resources. In saying that,
at a time when inflation has been revealed as
being 0.1% (June 2015), it ’s not going to make
a big dent in the welfare budget. Still, it makes
for an attention grabbing headline.
As I say, a freeze in some welfare benefits
won’t affect us directly, but if inflation rises
over the coming months (the Bank of England
‘target’ is for it to be at 2%) we will see
a continued drain on already diminishing
discretionary funds, as the cumulative effect of
a freeze takes hold on finances.
It is surprising to see that tax credits are
included in those benefits that will be frozen
and there is a danger – unless Working Tax
Credits (WTC) are exempt – that this will
have a detrimental impact on the intended
outcomes of the second element, which is
lowering the benefit cap.
A strong persuasive argument that
supported the £26,000 benefit cap was that
by taking up a job that resulted in receiving
WTC meant that the benefit cap no longer
applied. A freeze on tax credits may not be all
that significant at an individual level but it is
nevertheless another hurdle to overcome.
However it might be helpful to illustrate
what this reduced benefit cap means,
assuming the qualifying criteria remains
unaltered. An annual benefit cap of £23,000
equates to £442.30 per week.
The Couple Rate for Jobseekers Allowance
(IB) is currently £114.85 per week with a Child
Tax Credit per child of £57.00 per week. For
a three child family, that amounts to £285.85
per week, which only leaves £156.45 available
for housing benefit.
“More than enough” will come the cry from
the ‘north’ but many southern authorities
in particular will be affected as much if not
more than before. For example the LHA for a
areas of risk include:
• the readiness and scalability of the digital
service by April 2016
• whether engagement with HMRC, local
authorities and other delivery partners
including landlords will be sufficient, and
• whether operational processes prove
sustainable as volumes increase.
In addition, there are concerns as to whether
all funding to support delivery is agreed and
sufficient. The report questions whether
housing cost design is robust enough to ensure
accurate and timely payment avoiding fraud
and error and whether real time information
processes work effectively at large volumes.
A critical area for councils will be the
continuing uncertainty as to the future of the
housing benefit service. Regardless of the pace
of UC rollout and migration of housing benefit
claimants to UC, a housing benefit service will
still need to be provided. Whilst one scenario
may see DWP seeking to engage more closely
with local authorities over housing costs in
a UC environment, given the progress of UC
rollout and local authorities’ well established
landlord functions, just as likely is the
possibility that DWP may potentially withdraw
from engagement with local authorities and try
to go it alone.
The report highlights a steady erosion of
the administrative support grant from DWP
to support housing benefit delivery (as well
as funding administration of the council
tax reduction scheme), as year on year
efficiencies have been applied. COSLA aims
to ensure that DWP is sighted on the concerns
over the funding of the housing benefit service
and for clarity on the changes to be brought
about in the coming term.
The freedom of action for Scotland regarding
welfare matters as recommended under the
Smith Agreement, which includes being able
to make administrative changes to UC and to
vary the housing cost element, may not be as
two-bedroomed property in the area I work in
is £182.00 per week and social housing rents
aren’t much further behind.
Already we have had our major social
housing group contacting us with a request for
details of those tenants who may be affected
by the lower cap limit, as they are beginning to
show concern.
In some respects this is all nothing new –
it is just that the bar has been lowered. It was
not that long ago that we were meeting the
challenge of the introduction of the benefit
cap at £26,000 and it ’s time to pick those
policies and strategies off the shelf and blow
the dust off. It is also time to identify the
successes that there have been up and down
the country in helping people into work
and equally important, manage their
finances effectively.
Recent editions of Insight have included
examples of good practice from award winning
authorities and it is perhaps time to learn from
those lessons. It is also time, if you start to see
an increase in cases, to search around your
own authorities to see what is being done.
I found that by working in partnership with
the local Jobcentre plus, housing department,
Citizens Advice Bureaux, and the county
councils, particularly the Troubled Families
team, opened up other areas, such as
links to other charities and interest groups
that we were not in regular contact with,
all of whom provided valuable assistance
in implementation.
It is far better to be proactive and actively
manage the implementation. Whatever our
personal feelings about the legitimacy of the
benefit cap, it is a lot easier if we start off
looking for solutions rather than obstacles.
great as envisaged, because of the design and
interdependence of UK social security. There
will also be the matter of the fiscal framework
and what can be afforded in Scotland.
Despite this, COSLA sees a real opportunity
to ensure that benefits for carers, disabled
people and people who have chronic health
conditions are properly aligned with the
health and social care system, which is itself
undergoing a process of integration. This may
be an opportunity to explore the concept
of a single gateway administered by local
authorities, which would allow people to
access appropriate levels of financial support
based on need and agreed personal outcomes.
The report identifies that the full landscape
of welfare changes and policy shifts which
may arise over the next year is not yet clear.
Despite the uncertainties, there will still be
a role for local authorities in mitigating the
adverse impacts on communities and services
of welfare reforms. The organisation will still
need to work with both the UK government
and Scottish Government to develop local
supports and to undertake work to influence
both policy development and implementation.
COSLA is committed to playing a key role
in providing political direction on the resource
implications around responding to welfare
reform changes. Their added challenge this
year, the report states, is to develop a strong,
coherent view of how Scotland can make best
use of devolved powers over welfare and how
the new powers can complement existing
services delivered through local authorities.
“ Already we have had our major social housing group contacting us with a request for details of those tenants who may be affected by the lower cap limit, as they are beginning to show concern.”
“The report questions whether housing cost design is robust enough to ensure accurate and timely payment avoiding fraud and error and whether real time information processes work effectively at large volumes.”
Benefits bulletinFaculty board report
...says Phil Adlard, as he examines the welfare reform fallout following the General Election
This month it’s the turn of the Benefits Faculty Board, and Moira Hepworth provides a valuable insight
Phil Adlard Tech IRRV MInstLM MCMI
is a member of the Institute’s Council, and
Vice-Chair of the IRRV Benefits Faculty
Moira Hepworth BA (Hons)is the
Institute’s Policy and Research Manager
Geoff Fisher’s monthly summary of all things valuation is as wide-ranging as ever
Geoff Fisher FRICS Dip.Rating IRRV (Hons) REV is a Past President of the IRRV, and a member of the Institute’s Professional Conduct Committee
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Valuation matters
The Institute’s Revenues and Enforcement
Conference, held at Keele University in June,
featured a substantial number of presentations
of great interest to the valuation community. We
use this column to provide highlights – you can
read more of this key event in the IRRV calendar
in our cover story feature.
The Department for
Communities and Local
Government’s Nick Cooper introduced a review of
business rate policy, starting
out with a fascinating
high level analysis of local
government income and expenditure, leading
to the importance of the role of business rates
in the process. Nick described the issues to be
tackled by the review of administration, which
included appeals reform, including measures
in the ‘Enterprise Bill’ announced at Queen’s
speech, tackling rates avoidance, better data
sharing from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA)
to local government – also in the Enterprise Bill
– and digital improvements.
Director of Non-Domestic Rating with
the VOA and IRRV Council member Mary Hardman revealed the goals the Agency was
working towards in respect of the 2017 business
rate revaluation. The challenging timescales
involved ensuring:
• 70% of all entries are valued (and 40%
validated) by 29th January 2016
• 85% of all entries are valued (and 60%
validated) by 13th March 2016
• 90% of all entries are valued (and 80%
validated) by 8th April 2016
• 95% of all entries are valued (and 90%
validated) by 29th April 2016
• 100% of all entries are valued (and 100%
validated) by 27th May 2016.
The draft Rating List was set to be published
on 30th Sept 2016, with summary valuations
available online and the helpdesk opening on
1st October 2016, with the compiled Rating
Lists published on 1st April 2017. As part of the
Agency’s ‘channel shift’ drive, Mary confirmed
that the summary valuations would only be
available online, and explained the value of the
investment in the Local Authority Relationship
Manager role.
The importance of rates
retention and the maximisation
of income for the local
authority was a key feature of
the presentation from Roger
Messenger, IRRV Past President and Senior
Partner with Wilks, Head and Eve. Roger cited
the frequency of revaluations, the accuracy
of the List and the resources that need to be
deployed as major issues for consideration.
The importance of the role of the VOA
and billing authorities was stressed, as Roger
restated the need for investment in the
inspection process when focusing on the
resources needed to maximise business rate
income, a difficult challenge when related
to the current precarious position of local
authority finances.
Capita’s Divisional Rating Director,
Christopher Grose, asserted that any changes
in property usage that affect some sectors
more than others, should be reflected in the
rental market and therefore revaluations.
Business rates is a highly efficient tax, he added,
with high collection rates with a low cost and
evasion limited. However, “there is a need to
explain the business rates system better”. He
also questioned the link between inflation and
business rates, and suggested the option of
removing small properties from the system,
together with an examination of investment in
plant and machinery, energy efficiency, etc.
Equestrian activity is the subject of a recent Valuation Tribunal caseIn a case heard before the President of the
Valuation Tribunal for England, Professor
Graham Zellick, the issue of whether the non-
commercial training of racehorses warranted
a domestic or non-domestic rating stance
was the subject area. In the cases of John Cornwall v Alexander VO (April Cottage –
appeal no. 243023860173/539N10) and John Panvert v Reeves VO (Steart Farm – appeal
no. 113523404906/537N10), the President’s
conclusions read as follows:
“People use their houses, land and
outbuildings in many different ways. Many and
varied are people’s passions, interests and
hobbies. Most people don’t have equestrian
facilities or own a horse. Of those who do, some
will just ride for pleasure; others will hunt, race,
jump or engage in eventing, dressage or polo.
These are just different facets of the love of and
devotion to horses.
These many forms of equestrian activity,
absent a commercial element or a scale that
is completely out of keeping with a pastime or
hobby, should not be questioned. On different
facts, non-commercial use will not necessarily
escape rating simply on the assertion that it is
a hobby. Keeping of horses is long-established
and recognised. Other uses may produce a
different result, although this Tribunal should
be slow to pronounce an activity as rateable
merely because it is uncommon, unusual or
unconventional.
At the risk of grandiosity in this relatively
modest context, I go so far as to say that an
Englishman in his castle – unless Parliament
legislates clearly to the contrary – enjoys a
very wide latitude to indulge his interests and
passions before the State is entitled to exact
financial penalties and the taxpayer bound to
suffer additional taxation.
The facilities in Steart Farm are not ‘other appurtenances’ within s. 66(1)(b) for the
reasons given above. Mr Panvert’s appeal must
therefore be dismissed.
April Cottage, however, meets what I might
call the physical or objective test but it must also
satisfy... the domestic use requirement.
I reject the proposition that racehorse-training
is necessarily or inherently a non-domestic
activity. In my judgment, it is a matter of scale
and degree and thus turns on the specific facts.
On the specific facts, Mr Cornwall’s racehorse-
training activity is within the range of use
properly described as domestic. Mr Cornwall’s
appeal accordingly succeeds.”
A full transcript of the cases is available on the
VTE website on www.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/ListingsAndDecisions
Valuation Office Agency caseworker contacts updatedFollowing on from the Valuation Office
Agency’s Professional Bodies Liaison Group
meeting in May, the caseworker contact list
has been updated to reflect staff movements
onto different areas of work. As with the
original list, the Agency asks that the update
has access restricted to members only, and is
only used in connection with the settlement of
rating appeals.
If you need to receive a copy of the list,
contact the IRRV’s Deputy Chief Executive
Gary Watson, on [email protected]
Valuers’ Association Monthly Page
V@MPConference extra! RATING
Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) decisions:In K Bainbridge VO v Boldfield & Greenfield Software Ltd the VO had appealed against
the Valuation Tribunal (VT) decision to reduce
the RVs of offices at Buckingway Business Park,
Cambridge, from £25,750 to £19,750, and from
£51,500 to £39,500, reflecting post-AVD ‘oversupply’ at the Material Dates of 2010
and 2013, following completion of Trinity Court.
The Upper Tribunal found, after considering
the weighting of the particular evidence in the
context of Lotus and Delta v Culverwell VO
1976 RA14, that the decline in rents was entirely attributable to the effects of the recession, and the pre-VT RVs were restored.
The decision included debate as to lease
renewals and rent reviews in the hierarchy of
evidence. See http://www.landstribunal.gov.uk/Aspx/view.aspx?id=1159
Wonder Investments Ltd v D Jackson VO
concerned a case ‘struck out’ (Reg.10) – an
appeal where the appellant had failed to submit
a Statement of Case to the VT and VO in time,
and the VT Vice President decided to refuse an
application for reinstatement of the case. The
Upper Tribunal member reviewed the various
regulations, dismissed the VO’s application to
strike out the appeal under its case management
powers, and invited either party to make further
submissions on the substance of the appeal, or
wish the Tribunal to hold an oral hearing.
See http://www.landstribunal.gov.uk/Aspx/view.aspx?id=1163
Look out for VT Valuation in Practice VIP37 for the latest news on Upper Chamber
and Valuation Tribunal Decisions, etc. Go to
http://www.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/vip_newsletter.aspx See also the latest VT User Group minutes
at http://www.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/VTUsersGroupMinutes.aspx
The IRRV Revenues and Enforcement Conference held in Keele in June included a
policy review by Nick Cooper (DCLG Business
Rates Team), ‘Transience: the forgotten ingredient of rateable occupation’ by
Cain Ormondroyd (Francis Taylor Building),
‘Prospects for the 2017 Revaluation’ by
Mary Hardman (VOA Director), ‘Business Rate Retention: the Future’ by Roger Messenger
(Wilks Head and Eve), and ‘Business Rate Review – The Discussion Paper’ by Richard
Harbord, Immediate IRRV Past President IRRV
and Christopher Grose (Rating – Capita). See
the opposite page for more detailed reports on
this event.
The IRRV Lancashire and Cheshire Association held a Business Rates Seminar in Preston on 1st July, with presentations on
rating methods of valuation, rating appeals,
completion notices, rates retention, and a case
update involving charities and rates mitigation.
See http://www.irrv.net/associations/documents/IRRV%20Newsletter%2012%20June%2015%20Extra.pdf
Crossrail works (see below) continue to cause
major disruptions to business in central London
and beyond, leading to various 2005 and 2010
List MCC rating appeals for temporary and
other reductions, but the phased introduction
of services are due not to begin until mid-2017
– after the 2017 revaluation. See the Rating
Surveyors’ Association (RSA) website re RSA co-
ordination of appeals, etc. at
http://www.ratingsurveyorsassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=33
GENERAL PRACTICE
‘Red Book’ update – the UK and global portions
of the RICS Valuation – Professional Standards,
are now issued as separate pdfs, with the June
reprint of the global portion incorporating the
December 2013 correction, minor errata and
an updated index. References only relevant to
the UK portion have been removed. The UK portion has been updated with effect from
April 2015, including the reflecting of changes
to UK GAAP and the Code of Practice on
Local Authority accounting in UK (CIPFA), and
adjusting the lease term assumption in UK App 10, from 70 years to 85 years, where it is
not possible to inspect the lease.
The Compulsory Purchase Association (CPA) National Conference 2015 was held in London on
30 June and included presentations on improving
CPO processes, reform programmes, good practice
at the Tribunal, legal and decisions updates and the
need for accredited CPO practitioners. See http://www.compulsorypurchaseassociation.org/cpa-conference-2015.html
Crossrail – completion of the tunnelling
marathon took effect in June 2015, with continuing
construction and civil engineering, Network Rail
works, trains and railway depots, and the phased
introduction of services scheduled from mid-2017.
Multiple businesses have been affected and many
dispossessed by compulsory purchase to make way
for this major scheme, having to relocate or close
and claim statutory compensation. Whilst much of
the central London section is deep under ground,
the rebuilding of, for example, Tottenham Court
Road station, has caused years of disruption, albeit
creating opportunities for substantial redevelopment.
See the latest quarterly update at http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/quarterly-crossrail-update/
A new exhibition, ‘Breakthrough: Crossrail’s tunnelling story’ at the London Transport
Museum in Covent Garden, reveals London’s hidden
subterranean landscape on one of the largest railway
construction projects in Europe and is open until
31st August.
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sector” view of the world of debt recovery.
Robbie’s presentation highlighted some very
worrying trends. “People who’ve experienced
‘life events’ in the last year are more than
three times as likely to show signs of financial
difficulty, e.g. separation, job loss, reduced
hours, illness”, he said. Other research
identified that 13 million people could not rely
on savings to keep up with essential bills for
a month if their income dropped by a quarter,
and 63% of the workforce worry how they
would cope if they faced an income shock.
Robbie concluded by setting out his
organisation’s ‘wish list ’, which included:
• genuinely affordable, longer term repayment
plans offered early on in the arrears process
• the piloting of different messages in arrears
letters, and
• much fewer cases sent to bailiffs.
He also pointed out that the government
could help by sending consistent messages
to councils on the importance of affordable,
sustainable repayment – reflected in
measurements (e.g. % cases to bailiffs), and
considering introducing a “bailiff ombudsman”
to handle complaints.
The first day concluded with a return of
the national President, Kevin Stewart, who
presented a wide ranging and fascinating
account of the issues facing collection staff.
Kevin started out with a history lesson,
covering the delicate position demonstrated
by national collection rates, and leading to the
“can’t pay, won’t pay” conundrum. Analysing
the issues surrounding poverty, he tackled
the difficulties introduced by the council
tax support schemes, and moved on to the
manner in which his own authority, Luton,
was meeting the emerging problems.
Kevin illustrated how the third sector was
engaged in Luton, through the authority’s ‘Luton Access’ programme, the corporate approach
to debt, and many other initiatives that ensured
that the authority remained in the forefront of
Even the untimely intervention of a General
Election was unable to deter another healthy
turnout of participants at the Institute’s
Revenues and Enforcement Conference,
held once again at Keele University in June.
This year’s rescheduling of IRRV events was
always going to provide a challenge, but well
over a hundred delegates, a first rate collection
of speakers and a bustling exhibition area
ensured that it was ‘business as usual’ in this
critical area of the Institute’s portfolio.
Following the customary domestic
announcements and a very warm welcome
from IRRV President Kevin Stewart, it was
straight down to business with Nick Cooper of the Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG). Nick immediately put
the attendees at ease by confirming that in
spite of its various alternative descriptions in
both law and practice, ‘business rates’ was
still very much the phrase to describe this
important source of government income!
Turn to pages 14 and 15 for more summaries
of the proceedings at Keele. Our ‘Valuation
matters’ column covers the papers delivered
by Nick Cooper, Christopher Grose, Mary
Hardman and Roger Messenger.
With a wave of litigation currently having
its effect on the profession, it was no
surprise that barrister Cain Ormondroyd’s
presentation drew the crowd, as he proceeded
to take delegates through the minefield of
business rate law and practice, with a keen
eye on transience, the “forgotten ingredient
of rateable occupation”.
Cain’s focus on the issue of permanence
was illustrated by a number of key examples
of case law, some very recent and etched in
the mind of delegates, including of course the
infamous Makro case.
innovation and change management.
Our President was again in the spotlight
in the evening, as delegates enjoyed dinner
in the delightful Keele Hall, where the
highlights included a raffle presided over by
the man himself, producing over £400 for the
President’s own leukaemia and lymphoma
research charity (who joined in on the event
with their own exhibition stand), and over
£100 each for the Institute’s Benevolent Fund
and Educational Foundation.
Delegates returned bright and early the
following morning, to be treated to a ‘double
header’ comprising two 2014 Performance
Award winners. First up was Luton’s Clive Jones, who ably identified why his authority
was chosen as winners in the Excellence in Innovation category. Against the backdrop of
an authority with “all the characteristics of an
inner London borough”, Clive illustrated the
steps Luton had taken to move outside of their
local comfort zone, providing services for others
though their trading wing, which specialised
in income maximisation through internalising
bailiff services, increasing rate retention and
Improved performance throughout.
The second award winners were
represented by Robert Hawes, who
demonstrated why Chelmsford Council were
worthy winners of the Revenues Team of the Year award. Robert explained how his
authority was moving away from traditional
focus on in-year collection rates and looking
carefully at specific budget requirements,
using partnership and legislative opportunities
as best they could. Robert also pointed out
that the authority did not adopt a traditional
‘sausage machine’ approach, but reacted in a
proactive, personal but persistent manner to
collect debt.
The IRRV’s Immediate Past President
Richard Harbord tried hard to live up to his
self-promoted image of the bringer of doom
and gloom, as he amused the audience with
Following the welcome presence of Institute
Council member and Valuation Office
Agency business rate chief Mary Hardman,
who confirmed that the 2017 business rate
revaluation was proceeding as planned, it
was the enforcement agenda that took centre
stage. Recent IRRV conferences have often
featured a combined session involving a trio
of enforcement professionals, and this year
was no exception, as JBW Group’s Jeremy
Brim, Andy Cummins of Phoenix and Institute
Past President Dave Chapman of Rossendales,
conspired to provide a thought provoking and
entertaining end to the first morning.
Jeremy Brim took to the platform first,
and with the obvious subject material
being a review of the first year of the new
enforcement legislation, he was clear in his
view that a more consistent framework for
all stages of the enforcement process was
evident, with a clear, open and transparent
fee structure. “Enforcement agencies, agents
and their clients have a clearer and consistent
set of regulations and standards that must
be complied with”, he confirmed. Whilst
there were still operational issues in need of
resolution, Jeremy pressed home his view that
with the right cultural change across the board,
the new regime was going to be a success.
Andy Cummins followed on, and with the
aid of a series of slides featuring the ever-
popular elephant, his conclusion was that “the
compliance stage has been a success and
has exceeded expectations – let’s continue
to embrace and support it and resist any
attempts to undermine it.”
Taking delegates up to lunch, Dave Chapman turned his attention to the vexed
area of vulnerability, particularly when
associated with the new provisions for the
taking control of goods. Dave asserted
that this critical area was of even greater
importance than before, citing a Children’s
Society report which quite naturally favoured
extreme care when dealing with families in
his anecdote which highlighted that local
government was in a healthy position up to the
very day he joined it! His concerns included
the rather draconian fear that this vital aspect
of local democracy could eventually disappear
altogether, as he reminded delegates that the
DCLG was virtually toothless these days, and
worryingly under the control of the Treasury.
The final session of the conference fell
to the ‘dynamic duo’ of the Institute’s own
Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive,
David Magor and Gary Watson, who treated
delegates to an up to the minute summary
of everything they needed to know about the
revenues and enforcement field and more!
Once again, the IRRV had produced a high
quality event appreciated by all and providing
plenty of food for thought on the journey
home and back in the office the following day.
debt. His concluding slide confirmed that
in spite of its success, the new legislation
still suffered from some “unintended
consequences” that needed attention.
The event would of course have been
incomplete had the issue of the level of
liability order costs been absent, and IRRV
Council member and Insight regular Alistair Townsend led an extended session which
allowed delegates to have their say on the
Reverend Paul Nicolson’s successful challenge
of Haringey’s approach to court costs.
Offering some sympathy, Alistair suggested
that Haringey may have “taken one for
the team” on this issue! He was joined by
Cain Ormondroyd and IRRV Deputy Chief
Executive Gary Watson, as a lively discussion
ensued in respect of the level of costs and
their reasonableness.
Alistair’s conclusions highlighted that
whilst there was no definitive ‘correct’ way to
calculate court costs, local authorities would
be well advised to set proportional costs
relating to the application for a liability order
which included:
• staffing costs
• supplies and services
• recharges
• document production
• postage
• management costs
• court preparation, and
• complaint costs.
However, he pointed out that this could
include “wrong things”, and that each case
only gives conceptual information, all general
guidance is non-binding, and that it is always
a decision for each bench at each hearing. His
advice? “Always provide details to the court,
whether you are asked or not”.
IRRV events always provide the opportunity
for contrasting views, and this year’s event
followed the trend, as StepChange Debt
Charity’s Robbie De Santos provided a “third
John Roberts reports from Keele, as the great and the good in revenues and enforcement gathered once again to put their world to rights
John Roberts IRRV (Hons) is Managing
Editor of the Institute’s magazines
Cover story
The Institute’sRevenues and EnforcementConference report
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Bad news and bad housing!
When analysing print and mail costs, the focus
naturally falls on regular, big volume mailouts
such as annual billing. Challenges of this nature
are predictable in terms of timing and volumes,
and authorities are able to easily identify and
allocate the spend associated with such a visible
operation. As a result, informed decisions can
be made about the processing of such critical
communications, and many authorities are
recognising the benefits of partnering with
experts to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Where authorities are less successful is in
managing the production of everyday, ad-hoc
correspondence. The difficulty here is that
volumes are varied and unpredictable and
associated expenditure is difficult to track due to
production being spread across numerous sites,
people and departmental budgets.
The vast majority of this type of
correspondence is still produced internally. And
yet the cost of doing so is staggering. Even if
the authority has some way of tracking the final
postage total associated with mail of this nature,
it is highly unlikely that related ‘burdened costs’ will be calculated. Burdened costs are those
costs that must be absorbed in order to print and
mail documents in-house. Several studies and
reports have been commissioned over the years
to show the true cost of internal staff producing
mail but our own research is particularly pertinent
to public sector readers. We work with over 50
authorities across the UK and this experience
has enabled us to calculate burdened costs
accurately – and to revise them year on year.
The true cost of internal productionThe table below shows the average burdened
costs per document based on our work with
local authorities:
Well, here we go with the time lag again. The
Queen’s Speech was on 27th May. It gave us
a mere sketchy outline of the benefit-cutting
measures to come. But you will be reading this
after the projected July Budget, which means
that you will have a lot more detail than I do at
the time of writing.
So what did Her Majesty (and accompanying
government briefings) tell us?
There will be a freeze on a number of
working-age benefits and tax credits for two
years from 2016/17. We knew that.
The benefit cap threshold will be reduced to
£23,000 per year. We knew that, too.
“Automatic entitlement to housing support”
for 18-21 year olds is to go. And we knew that,
as well.
But the content of the colossal £12 billion of
benefit cuts that the new government proposes
to make is still largely (around £10.5 billion)
unknown at the time of writing. I shall doubtless
have something to say about it next issue.
ResearchMeanwhile, back on the frontier between
benefits and housing, there is some interesting
new research just out.
Citizens Advice, with the New Policy
Institute (NPI), have recently published a
report concerning the growth of the private
rented sector, its changing composition (a lot
more families with children) and the poor and
even dangerous conditions that are too often
to be found in its lower reaches1.
This was very interesting to me. Apart from
the fact that I am interested in housing policy
anyway, just about the last thing I did before
leaving Citizens Advice in April 2014, after
a stint as the housing policy specialist, was
to present a paper to senior managers on
issues in the housing market, including the
private rented sector. It is good to see that that
strand of work has continued, especially in
collaboration with our esteemed friends
at the NPI.
Looking at these figures it becomes clear that
much of the hidden cost of internal document
production is generated by the reliance on
staff time. Indeed, we calculate that for each
mailed item, 20% of the cost is consumables
and printing, 56% is labour, with postage
accounting for the remaining 24%. Staff will
be skilled in many facets of their role but print
production will not be an area of expertise
– nor should it be one that imposes on their
daily tasks.
Critiqom’s expert, purpose-built production
systems and our Primepost postal optimisation
solution reduce these costs to around 30p plus
on average*, an estimated saving of around
£1.21 per letter. Multiplied across a working
year (based on 260 days per year and sending
around 100,000 mailed items per annum) this
saving equates to £121,000 per year.
Savings aren’t restricted to bulk mail. A
hybrid mail solution like IQ PostMe from
Critiqom, enables staff to send print-jobs
via a desktop portal to our production sites,
rather than producing mail on costly office
printers, and can effectively capture all of
the small volumes of ad-hoc correspondence
generated across an authority. Because these
smaller volumes are batched together at our
production sites we are able to unlock the
postal discounts through our Primepost solution that would otherwise be unavailable.
Efficiency and savings in actionThis expertise is currently driving efficiency
and savings for The Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP) , a group of seven local
authorities working together to provide a
shared service to residents across East Anglia.
ARP recently reviewed its print and postal
operation and recognised an opportunity to
further improve efficiencies. Critiqom was
selected to handle the partnership’s daily letter
volume, totalling some 36,000 letters per
month, comprised of administration relating to
council tax, housing benefit and various debt
recovery and business rate documentation.
ARP’s Stuart Philpot, Strategic Manager
(Support), comments, “We knew that our
So what has this got to do with benefits in
general and Universal Credit (UC) in particular?
Well, you will not be surprised to learn that the
report draws attention to the fact that a large
amount of Housing Benefit (HB) finds its way
into the private rented sector:
“Overall, despite getting a worse product,
private renters pay more than those in other
tenures. On average, private renters spend a
third (34%) of their income on housing costs.
And, with incomes squeezed, HB is taking the
strain... These high costs extend to homes that
are unsafe. The average rent paid for private
rental properties that are unsafe is £157 a
week meaning that, in total, private landlords
are paid £5.6 billion a year in rent for unsafe
homes, £1.3 billion of which is paid by the
state in the form of HB.”
In future, of course, it will be the rental
element of UC that increasingly ‘takes the strain’.
In the past, some commentators have
suggested that HB should not be paid for
substandard accommodation. However, this
would in practice leave a lot of tenants still
stuck where they are, but struggling even more
to afford it. Happily, the Citizens Advice/NPI
report does not propose this.
So, what to do?
RecommendationsThe report points out that:
“...in most other markets a mix of consumer
rights, licensing schemes and routes to
redress, make it hard to profit systematically
by selling a dud product. As things stand, the
housing market, the most important consumer
market of all, lags far behind.”
Curiously, there are no specific
recommendations in the report. However,
in its accompanying press release2, Citizens
Advice proposes that:
“Tenants should be entitled to rent refunds
where properties are dangerous or not fit to
live in.
existing print and mail set-up could be
improved. A significant number of documents
were being batch-printed in house on
departmental printers and there was no real
economy of scale despite the volumes that we
were regularly processing.”
We immediately set about re-engineering
the way that print files were received,
reconciled and printed. Previously, manual
intervention was often required to ensure
full integrity (particularly around large file
size documents) and the process was
unnecessarily labour intensive. Critiqom
introduced an automated workflow built
around a white-paper solution. Now, print jobs
come into Critiqom’s purpose built document
factory in Warrington, sent directly via a
secure web portal accessible to authorised
ARP staff only. Instead of matching data to
pre-printed templates, the entire document is
now printed directly onto plain white paper,
reducing manual labour, improving efficiency
and eliminating the need to store costly pre-
printed paper stock.
In addition to cost savings, any move to an
outbound solution could result in a reduction
of required office space to house equipment
and staff, along with delivering continuous
equipment and software upgrades.
The burdened costs of internal print
production are a hidden drain on resources.
Outsourcing everyday mail and print to a
specialist can drive out cost and free staff to
focus on their core front line tasks.
* example cost to show potential savings. Cost may vary between £0.30p and £0.34p depending on solution being used.
“A national landlord register should be set up.
This could help ensure landlords operating
illegally cannot move to different areas to
avoid legal action.
“Councils should also set up local licensing
to tackle specific issues in their private rental
markets. This could help to ensure landlords are
providing the quality of housing and service the
area needs and ensure tenants know what they
can expect from a good landlord.”
This is fine as far as it goes, but I would
argue that fundamentally, the problems of
overheating and poor quality in the private
rented sector require a rehabilitation of the
social rented sector as a desirable tenure,
along with a reversal of its numerical decline
and its drift towards higher rents. Reducing
the demand for private renting and offering a
viable alternative other than owner-occupation
would get at some of the roots of the problem.
I should say, to be fair, that this is not an
approach that resonated in the upper reaches
of Citizens Advice. I think it was seen as
‘Old Labour’, running against the grain of
government policy (even more so now, of
course) and rather expensive.
Nevertheless, politically unfashionable
solutions have their place, if only to keep an
important debate alive, so I shall stick to my
guns on this – and I strongly suspect that a
lot of advisers in Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and
other local advice centres (not to mention a
lot of tenants) would agree with me.
And HB and the rental element of UC would
be much better spent.
1 A nation of renters: how England moved from secure family homes towards rundown rentals, Citizens Advice & New Policy Institute, May 2015.
2 Citizens Advice, 21/5/15.
“ Even if the authority has some way of tracking the final postage total associated with mail of this nature, it is highly unlikely that related ‘burdened costs’ will be calculated.”
“ In the past, some commentators have suggested that HB should not be paid for substandard accommodation. However, this would in practice leave a lot of tenants still stuck where they are, but struggling even more to afford it.”
Credit notes
Burdened costs – or how to save over £1 per letter
Geoff Fimister offers first thoughts on the Queen’s Speech and comments on some new research
Ian Forster is Sales Director with Critiqom.
Critiqom are a supplier under Lot3 of the
Postal Goods and Services Framework
Agreement (RM1063) which relates directly to
the provision of off-site hybrid mail solutions
Geoff Fimister is Campaigns Officer
(Incomes) with RNIB and a writer on
benefit issues
Total burdened costs for documentsAverage cost
Visible hard costs – hardware, toner and inks, paper (plain and special), click charges, services and maintenance, power, etc.
30p
IS support and infrastructure – help desks, 2nd level support, installation, asset management, assessment, testing training, print servers, network connections, mainframe conversions, print formatting software, pre-processing equipment, etc.
8p
Administration and purchasing –product and services selection, internal requisitions, orders, billing, RFPs, storage, restocking, supplies service centers, inventory management, vendor relationship management, etc.
9p
Document production – end user production time/energy, waiting time, intervention activity, hand finishing, walking to copiers, fax machine interaction, etc.
38p
Document management – the ‘before and af ter’ process costs including filing, storing, indexing, COLD, scanning, binding, retrieving, mailroom functions, pre-printed forms, electronic forms, document creation, waste disposal, etc.
30p
Plus postage – average 36p per 2nd class frank*. 36p
Total burdened cost. £1.51
*This cost will be greater in reality as other post being issued 1st class
Back office processing
...Ian Forster provides the explanation
Collection & enforcement
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“ It enables them to look at outstanding debts and identifies larger debts or multiple debts at the touch of a button.”
Destin Solutions, Bury Council is now
able to collect debt data from dif ferent
parts of the council and consolidate it so
that recovery managers can make more
informed decisions on recovery approaches.
It enables them to look at outstanding debts
and identifies larger debts or multiple debts
at the touch of a button, ensuring not only
that Bury Council can maximise its recovery
resources, but also it means debt can be
collected more efficiently.
Councils can also take a smar ter approach
to informing citizens about their debt.
Rather than a customer receiving four or
f ive calls, texts, letters or visits from
dif ferent depar tments chasing for payment,
which can create more anxiety and stress,
one contact can be made providing a
total amount of debt owed and a more
considered approach applied.
This technology which Civica has now
become a main distributor for in the UK, can
be used not just to report on debt but also
to analyse it for more informed decision
making. By viewing trends and patterns
amongst customer debt and cross referencing
this with demographical information, councils
can start applying recovery approaches more
suited to the customer and start flagging
earlier on where potential problems may
arise. A typical example might be using
text messaging for payment reminders for
the under-25’s. Similarly, if analysis of debt
data uncovers that those citizens who live
in a specific postcode are twice as likely to
default on payment of council tax, recovery
teams could be more proactive in creating
more bespoke repayment terms or offering
incentives for earlier payment.
Ultimately, if councils can reduce the
amount of administrative costs and reduce
duplication of effort across the different
teams associated with recovery and
collection, these savings could be used
to invest in more ethical approaches to
According to Citizens Advice in a recent article
which appeared in the Guardian, the number
of council tax debt cases handled by the
charity has increased by 21% in the last year
to 193,000. Similarly the StepChange Debt Charity also reported a 372% increase in the
last five years of people contacting them who
have council tax arrears. The Guardian article
also reported that the increase in arrears
corresponded with the abolition of council
tax benefit in April 2013 and that seven out
of ten clients who were behind with council
tax payments had at least one other debt
problem too.
As the problem appears to show no signs
of abating, now might be the time to explore
some options for councils on how to take a
more considered approach to debt recovery
and collections. The first step in doing this
is to have a better understanding and all
round view of the debtor and the debt they
have built up across multiple areas within an
authority. This has been a challenge in the
past because you are dealing with multiple
systems and teams managing different types
of debt.
Thankfully technology has moved on, and
there are now tools which can be used to
harvest data from multiple debt systems, to
present a single view of debt in one portal.
Forward thinking authorities have bought into
this approach and are starting to reap the
rewards. Cameron Smith, Performance and
Policy Manager at Bury Council, comments,
“The council has a responsibility to collect
debt in an ethical way. If someone has
built up a lot of debt, it is important to take
account of their whole financial situation.
This provides you with information you
need to put together a repayment plan they
are more likely to meet, without causing
them additional hardship that could require
expensive support from elsewhere in the
public sector.”
Working with companies like Civica and
Collection & enforcement
Tracy McAVoy is Marketing Director
with Destin Solutions. Contact her on
[email protected] or go to
www.destin.co.uk
... is the way forward, says Tracy McAvoy
debt collection. Examples could be further
investment in analysis as to why the debt is
building up in the first instance, or whether
there are any commonalities across debtors.
Is there the potential to roll out new
initiatives, such as Bury Council have done,
to start charging more council tax on empty
properties? This could act as a supplement
for the debt which then needs to be written
off. Could the costs associated with chasing
up non-payment of council debt be forgone,
to remove additional pressure from debtors?
Similarly, could more high profile campaigns
be launched, encouraging potential debtors
to come forward in advance to admit they
may have a problem meeting payments and
to assist them in how to plan for financial
budgeting in future?
The issue of non-payment of council tax
is getting more and more air time in both
local and national press. Those councils
who can demonstrate they are taking a
more considered approach to recovery and
collection from citizens will not only win more
hearts and minds of residents, but if handled
in the right way may also be able to improve
on collection targets.
In last month’s issue, I examined the fee
structure provided by the new enforcement
legislation, and ventured to suggest that it
had been so far, so good. This month, in the
second and final part of this article, I shall
examine the application of the regulations
and subsequent recovery of fees from the
customer for enforcement-related services.
Are creditors satisfying themselves that this is
being adhered to?
Regulation 4 of The Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 stipulates
the fees that may be recovered from the
customer. Paragraph 3 states that the
enforcement agent may recover the whole
fee provided in the Schedule (TCE Act 2007)
for a stage where the amount outstanding is
paid after the commencement, but before the
completion, of that stage.
Regulation 5 goes on to explain what those
relevant stages are. While the application of
fees at the compliance stage and enforcement
stage should perhaps be more straightforward,
the area around the sale/disposal stage
has been a little hazy. Indeed, the Civil
Enforcement Association (CIVEA) was asked
to provide advice on the circumstances that
should exist prior to the application of a sale
stage fee. Regulation 5(c) says:
“The sale or disposal stage, which
comprises all activities relating to enforcement
from the first attendance at the property for
the purpose of transporting goods to the place
of sale, or from commencing preparation for
sale if the sale is to be held on the premises,
until the completion of the sale or disposal
(including application of the proceeds and
provision of the information required by
regulation 14).”
While it is impossible to give specific
guidance that covers every possible
eventuality, we know it is the position of CIVEA
and in accordance with the clear intention
of government, that a sale stage fee should
only be applied where positive action has
been taken to commence a removal. A mere
‘intention’ to remove should not be the
trigger for the application of the £110 sale
fee, as this could be considered as not being
in line with the spirit of the regulations and
likely to prompt intervention by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) – possibly being viewed as
an unintended consequence and a return to
the pre-TCE position which was regarded
as unacceptable.
The true aim of effective enforcement is
not to be punitive, but to engage with the
customer and obtain payment in the least
complicated, impartial manner possible.
Therefore, in reality, the occasions where
there is an actual
need to remove
(or begin to
remove) goods
owned by the
customer should
be few and far
between. In fact,
in council tax
cases in the first
year of the new
TCE regulations,
Rossendales
has actually
only applied the
£110 fee on ten
occasions, truly demonstrating that this should
be the exception rather than the rule.
Following representations, the MoJ was
persuaded to provide greater flexibility to
cater for the situation where a customer
wants to pay once a removal has
commenced, such as when a tow truck
arrives at the debtor’s premises. It was felt
that flexibility would reduce conflict, as the
requirement to complete the removal to
qualify for the fixed fee, when the customer
was willing to pay, could lead to complaints
and unnecessary confrontation.
It is worth pointing out that some
respondents to the original MoJ consultation
in 2012 voiced concerns that the sale
stage included the removal of goods and
transportation to the place of sale as well as a
number of required actions, including obtaining
a valuation. It would be naïve to assume that
the not so insignificant costs of actual removal,
insurances and costs of sale could adequately
be covered by the core activities included
within the £110 sale fee. However, there is the
buffer of the disbursements and exceptional
costs process built into the Taking Control of
Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 (regs 8,9 and
10) – over and above the normal costs such as
dealing with specialist or high value goods.
It is clear that a robust regulatory framework
is a vital component in setting standards
and achieving the correct balance between
the rights of the creditor and those of the
customer. We recognise that the enforcement
industry must continue to develop public
confidence, but whilst the political horizon
may be uncertain, it is also clear that there
are many reasons to feel positive about the
changes brought about by the TCE regulations.
“ Following representations, the MoJ were persuaded to provide greater flexibility to cater for the situation where a customer wants to pay once a removal has commenced, such as when a tow truck arrives at the debtor’s premises.”
James Mckillop concludes his two part examination of the effect of the new enforcement legislation fee structure
James Mckillop is a Business Development
Executive with Rossendales (part of the
Marston Group)
The sale fee should still be the exception rather than the rule
Taking a more considered approach to council tax recovery
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Producing more from less simplywon’t be achievableOutside my Salisbury hotel, the 800th
anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta
is being heralded around the city’s cathedral,
even as I write – a celebration of the balance
of power shifting, somewhat, from the
monarchy to the people all those years ago.
Ironic, therefore, that I should have been
reading about a fairly recent management
ideology that is known as ‘holacracy ’ – one
principle of which is that the organisation’s
head is subject to the same rules as everyone
else – a fundamental concept enshrined in the
Magna Carta by King John, establishing that
the monarch was no longer above the laws to
which its subjects are required to abide.
Holacracy is a system of organisational
governance in which authority and decision-
making are distributed throughout self-
organising teams, rather than in a traditional
management hierarchy. The idea is considered
to be the brainchild of US ICT entrepreneur
Brian J Robertson, who has applied his
philosophy to his own company organisation
structure. After all, how can you preach the
benefits of such a concept when you don’t
adopt its principles yourself?
My own musing was triggered by a thought
that effective leadership can be a little like
good customer service, in as much as we
cannot always identify precisely what it is but
we all know when we haven’t received it and,
equally, we all recognise it when it ’s evident.
This led me back to a perennial challenge for
me, understanding why some managers and
leaders persist in the overbearing desire to
micromanage and, in my opinion, stifle the
innovative and creative instincts they may have
within their teams.
As I have commented before, in a strict
command and control environment, staff
generally will do little more than is necessary
to get by. And, forgive me for repeating the
mantra once again, but producing more from
less simply won’t be achievable.
Mistakenly, holacracy has been described
as ‘no-one is in charge’. This is missing the
point. Ultimately, in any organisation, someone
has to be accountable, so there has to be a
chief. In my experience, it’s the insecure middle
managers that resort to micromanagement,
often feeling threatened instead of embracing
the talent at their disposal. This weakness
is overcome in a holacratic organisation, by
flattening the structure and limiting the impact
of middle managers.
My research led me to www.holacracy.org
where I discovered a small matrix (see chart
above). This suggests some of the fundamental
differences between a traditional organisation
and one that embraces ‘open allocation’
management structures – the premise upon
which holacracy is built.
The realisation is that an open allocation-
structured organisation is much more
likely to be flexible, therefore capable of
delivering customer need and responsive
to its environment, irrespective of how
frequently and how extensive market forces
change. Wrapped up in that culture will be a
willingness of staff to fully engage, in return
for the extra freedom that holacracy inherently
provides for a workforce.
It ’s not rocket science, and is aligned with
the Psychological Contract that Edgar Schein
has described exists between employer and
employee. In other words, the extent to which
both parties feel that they are benefiting from
the ‘relationship’ will have a direct bearing
on the extent to which either party is prepared
to go that extra mile.
Clearly, such a model as is outlined above
is more likely to fit with a private sector
organisation, but that’s not to say that it would
not work in a public sector organisation.
Corporately, the decision may be out of
your hands, but there’s no reason why the
principles could not be applied at service level.
I’ve only scratched the surface of holacracy
here but my point is this. If you try and
squeeze every last drop of moisture from a
sponge, it takes enormous effort. Likewise,
actively squeezing your workforce will require
similar effort.
However, if you view them as a sparkling
refreshment, just a gentle shake may be all
that’s needed for them to explode into life.
Have the courage to relinquish some control
and release that energy with a little shake up
– much as King John released the energy of
the Great British public and, maybe, was the
catalyst to all that we have achieved in the last
800 years. That could be your legacy!
“ This led me back to a perennial challenge for me, understanding why some managers and leaders persist in the overbearing desire to micromanage .”
Management
You need to get a little holacracy into your workplace, Sean Langley suggests
Sean Langley FIRRV is a benefits
and revenues consultant, and author of
©The phat Controller (A Leadership
Handbook). Go to www.seanlangley.co.uk
TRADITIONAL HIERARCHICAL BUREAUCRACY OPEN ALLOCATION HOLACRACY
Job descriptionsEach person has just one job. Job descriptions are imprecise, rarely updated, and often irrelevant.
RolesRoles are defined around the work, not people, and are updated regularly. People fill several roles.
Delegated authorityManagers loosely delegate authority. Ultimately, their decisions always trump.
Distributed authorityAuthority is truly distributed to teams and roles. Decisions are made locally.
Big re-organisationsThe organisational structure is rarely revisited, mandated from the top.
Rapid iterationsThe organisational structure is regularly updated via small iterations. Every team self-organises.
Office politicsImplicit rules slow down change and favour people ‘in the know’.
Transparent rulesEveryone is bound by the same rules, CE included. Rules are visible to all.
IRRV Professional Meetings
T: 020 7691 8987
W: www.irrv.net/conferences
Completion Notices5 November 2015—London • 3 December 2015—Manchester
This Professional Meeting is aimed at those working within both Local Government and the Private Sector. It will focus on the importance of serving completion notices for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rate, when (and when not) they are served, how they are served and the options then available to the owner, billing authority and valuation / listing officer. There will be an Open Forum in the afternoon where delegates can raise issues with the speakers. This meeting will be delivered by Gary Watson, Deputy Chief Executive, IRRV and Gordon McKay, Local Authority Relationship Manager, VOA.
Please visit our website to book your place.
Fees:
IRRV Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £135 plus VATBAS/Forum/Organisational Member . . . . . . . . . . . £165 plus VATNon Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £195 plus VAT
Special Offer:
3 for 2 on mutiple bookings** Delegates must be from the same organisation in order to receive this offer. The lowest fee will not be charged.
FINAL DATES CONFIRMED
•
IRRV Training Days
T: 020 7691 8987
W: www.irrv.net/trainingdays
• IntroductiontoBusinessRates–Janet Alexander IRRV (Hons) 21 September, London
• IntroductiontoCouncilTax–Janet Alexander IRRV (Hons) 22 September, London
• RoleoftheCouncilattheMagistratesCourt–Gary Watson IRRV (Hons) 19 October, London 22 October, Manchester 3 November, Hinckley
• BusinessRatesMasterClass–Janet Alexander IRRV (Hons) 16 & 17 November, London
• CouncilTaxMasterClass–Janet Alexander IRRV (Hons) 23 & 24 November, London
Fees: Introduction MasterClassIRRV Member £125 plus VAT £240 plus VATBAS/Forum/Organisational Member £155 plus VAT £300 plus VATNon Member £185 plus VAT £360 plus VAT
SpecialOffer:
3for2onmultiplebookings** Delegates must be from the same organisation in order to receive this offer
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Adopting a shared value approach
Changes in capital fundingWith the decline of public funding for social
housing, many associations are seeking new,
more cost-effective ways of borrowing for
capital projects. Private debt finance going into
housing supply has historically come from two
main sources – conventional corporate loans
provided by banks and other
financial institutions, and
bond finance (either publicly
listed or privately placed).
Until recently, in the
housing association sector,
banks made long-term
finance (up to 30 years)
available at competitive
rates. For those associations
whose balance sheets
were modestly geared, this
conventional corporate debt
was the most cost-effective
way of borrowing money to
fund growth, development
and the acquisition of new
homes. In recent years long-
term debt finance has become more difficult
to acquire and its costs have risen significantly.
Banks are coming under considerable
regulatory pressure and are being encouraged
to match the lifetime of their assets with their
liabilities. This has resulted in a shift in the
profile of their lending away from long-term
loans towards shorter or medium term finance
of five to seven years.
Where long-term corporate debt remains
available, lenders may demand an ability to
re-price at intervals above five years and for
many associations this represents a financial
risk that they are unwilling to take. Refinancing
introduces a degree of uncertainty that makes
long-term planning problematic. There is
now evidence that the funding of affordable
housing is moving towards a divided position,
with the banks providing short-term finance
(which could be on an individual project basis)
In 2015, for the first time in living memory,
a General Election was not seen as a ‘two-horse’ race between Labour and the
Conservatives. A number of commentators
have argued that something fundamental has
changed in British politics and the old ‘two party plus one’ system is now a thing of the
past. It is said that from now on we will have
to get used to the idea that more than two
parties will have post-election parliamentary
influence. Formal or informal coalition
arrangements have, it is said, become ‘the new normal’.
The first time I heard the phrase ‘the new
normal’ was not in the context of party politics,
but as a description of the changed conditions
within which housing associations have
to function. Speaking at a dinner for housing
association chairs in 2013, Roy Irwin,
the former chief inspector for the Audit
Commission, argued that the political and
economic climate in which associations now
operate has changed permanently and, as a
result, they will have to rethink their policies
and alter their practices to match what is now
a fundamentally new operating environment.
Change brings with it opportunities as well
as threats. Those social landlords that see the
future as some form of modified projection
of the past are unlikely to prosper in the new
climate. On the other hand, those that respond
appropriately to the new challenges have an
opportunity to redefine their missions and
alter their practices in ways that could enhance
their roles within the overall housing system.
Significant changes are already occurring on
two broad fronts. Firstly, housing associations
are diversifying into new areas of service
provision. Secondly, new ways of funding
are being sought. These two changes are
clearly inter-related.
Changes in functionFalling grant rates have provided a stimulus
to some social landlords to generate new
and the capital markets and wider institutional
investors becoming an important source of
long-term funding. These changes to capital
financing clearly bring up questions about how
the financial institutions would react to any
extensions to the ‘right to buy ’ that include
assets in which they have a debt interest.
Bond finance is already established as an
important element of housing association
funding. There appears to be a good appetite
for this provision from the market. Some
£4.4 bn. was invested in social housing via
public and private placement bond issues
in 2012, bringing the total for the sector to
above £12bn. by 2013. The Housing Finance Corporation already acts as a conduit for
the sector, enabling smaller and medium
sized associations to access the markets in
an indirect way by aggregating their individual
funding requirements to an amount that is
acceptable to the market.
Redefining the role of housing associations: the emerging idea of ‘shared value’Based on research and analysis carried out at
the Harvard Business School, new ideas are
revenue streams in order to maintain their
services and underpin their development
programmes. These new sources of revenue
are utilised to cross-subsidise their social
housing activities. Building on their existing
strengths, some associations have now set up
commercial profit-seeking companies in fields
such as facilities management and private property lettings.
The changing nature of subsidy support , coupled with recent developments around
tenure restructuring (e.g. the requirement
to provide ‘af fordable’ homes let at up to
80% of market rent and threats to extend
the ‘right to buy’), have led some social
housing agencies to consider diversifying
horizontally around the traditional core
business of a social landlord. This might
be regarded more as ‘growth’ rather
than ‘diversification’. It can be achieved
through internal expansion or external merger or some form of legal partnering agreement . Some social landlords earn
fees by managing homes built or owned by
private landlords or another social agency.
Some have purchased proper ties outright
from an existing landlord. Others have used
private sector renting to cross-subsidise
af fordable housing programmes.
Although an increasing number of housing
associations are moving into market renting,
emerging about the appropriate relationship
between business and society. Many firms
declare a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). This can be thought of
as an approach to business that actively seeks
to make a positive contribution to society. In
practice the term can refer to a wide range
of actions that companies may take, from
donating to charity to reducing carbon emissions. The Harvard approach argues for
the efficacy of instigating more fundamental
changes in business thinking and suggests
that in the political and commercial climate
following the financial crisis of the late 1980s,
successful companies need to review their
relationships with society. The criticism of
CSR is that it does not represent a full cultural
commitment to being a valued part of society
but rather that it maintains an ‘old-fashioned’
(and increasingly inappropriate) view of
nineteenth and twentieth century benevolent
capitalism. By failing to embed the creation
of social value into the business plan, the
advocates of shared value argue that the ‘good
works’ of the corporately responsible firm are
little more than ‘bolt-ons’ to their traditional
ways of working.
Social organisations and government
entities often see success solely in terms
of the external (e.g. community) benefits
achieved or the money expended. The
concept of shared value can be defined as,
‘policies and operating practices that enhance
the competitiveness of a company while
simultaneously advancing the economic
and social conditions in the communities in
which it operates.’ This approach moves away
from a business model in which the firm
donates a small proportion of its distributable
profits to ‘good causes’ to one in which
proper recognition is given to the fact that
the addressing of societal concerns yields
direct productivity benefits to the firm itself.
Housing associations are particularly well
placed to adopt a shared value approach to
their business activities. Indeed, a number of
associations are at the forefront of developing
a model of business culture that is grounded
in the notion of shared value. In so doing,
they are beginning to strengthen their
business identities and are thereby defining
a clearer role for the movement in the twenty
first century.
for most that do, it currently represents a
relatively small part of their turnover and
asset base. Within the sector, however, there
is an emerging debate about the efficacy of
housing associations entering the sector in a
more aggressive and wholehearted fashion.
Given the resurgence of private renting (which
is now at least as large as the social rented
sector) and the debate about its need to
be supported and reformed (e.g. the 2012
Montague Report), some in the housing
association movement believe the time is right
for social landlords to utilise their experience
and expertise to provide ethically managed quality rented homes at full market rent.
Because business diversification carries
financial and reputational dangers, it is a
growth strategy that needs to be based on
market research and careful analysis that
considers its exposure to new risks and the
organisation’s capacity to operate effectively in
the wider field. The process of diversification
can also require subtle adjustments to the
corporate culture that need to be understood
and agreed prior to its introduction. Regulators
are now advising that most ‘non-core’
activities (i.e. everything except social
housing) should be carried out by a separate
internal entity and be ‘ring-fenced’ from social
housing so that if the non-core activity should
fail, the social housing will not be put at risk.
It also suggests that every social housing
provider above a certain size should prepare a
‘living will’, setting out how, if the business
fails as a whole, its affairs will be wound up in
a way that protects its social housing assets.
By providing a range of community services
such as grounds maintenance and parallel
agencies for home buyers and private
landlords, many housing associations are,
in effect, redefining themselves as ‘social businesses’ rather than as simply ‘social landlords’. Like all businesses, housing
associations need to consider how best to
finance growth and development.
“ This can be thought of as an approach to business that actively seeks to make a positive contribution to society. In practice the term can refer to a wide range of actions that companies may take, from donating to charity to reducing carbon emissions.”
“ This might be regarded more as ‘growth’ rather than ‘diversification’. It can be achieved through internal expansion or external merger or some form of legal partnering agreement.”
David Garnett explores the changing role of today’s housing association
David Garnett is an author and expert on
housing issues. His book, A-Z of Housing
(Professional Keywords) is due for release
in July. Go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/Housing-Professional-Keywords-David-Garnett/dp/1137366737
Housing exposed
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Are people really willing to help?
The public sector faces a big financial
challenge, yet demand for services is still
rising. Our company’s ‘People Power’ report
looks at whether the public can do more to
support cost effective public services.
In recent years, the digital revolution has
made a big difference to the quality and
cost effectiveness of public services and
government continues to shift as many
services as it can online. At the same time,
it is looking to devolve power and encourage
more and more people to volunteer and to
actively support public services in their
local communities.
These policies might seem incompatible
at first, but the digital world continues to
change the relationship between people
and government, so we wanted to take a
closer look.
Research commissionedWe commissioned research with civil servants,
our clients and the public to see if we might
combine digital services with people’s
willingness to make a contribution and make
public services cheaper as well as better.
We found that out of 1,317 civil servants
who responded to a survey by Dods Research,
84% agreed that a more active contribution
from the public could improve public services
and 65% that it can cut costs.
This was not because volunteers would
replace salaried staff, but because it would
enable a better understanding of local
conditions, making it easier to target services
and prevent problems escalating. Our clients
agreed. From councils to health bodies,
housing providers and the police, staying
close to communities was seen as essential
to providing insight on what works best and
many were considering how to increase
their involvement.
Two local authorities were considering
which services might be run by communities.
A police force felt that the cost of policing
IntroductionIn the last article we covered some of the
difficulties in importing large data sets into
Excel and some of the ways in which this may
be overcome. It also raised the important
issue of data cleansing – that is making
sure that the data is in a suitable format for
analysis. In this article and the accompanying
Excel workbook we shall examine some of the
data cleansing issues.
Excel utilitiesBefore looking at the issue of data cleansing
it is worth looking at an ‘add-in’ to Excel which
can make the whole process somewhat easier
to undertake.
ASAP Utilities: http://www.asap-utilities.com/
This is probably one of the most useful sets
of utilities for any Excel user, with the added
advantage that it is free for personal users,
though the program has to be replaced/re-
downloaded every year. A perpetual licence
can be purchased.
I would recommend that you install this
free add-in, as it will be referred to and used
in this article.
Sources of informationThere are three websites that you may find as
being particularly useful for the subject:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/MainPage.aspxThe Chip Pearson website contains a wealth
of information dealing with how to undertake
various common tasks in Excel. It has a very
comprehensive index and contains many
example formula, code, etc.
http://www.contextures.com/index.html The Debra Dalgleish website specialises in
pivot tables, data validation, data tables, as well
as other topics. The site contains a wealth of
examples and spreadsheets to download. She
has also developed the Power Pivot Premium
add-in, which is recommended above.
http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/ This website specialises in charting. Like the
others mentioned in this section, it contains
many examples which can be downloaded.
would go down as people got more engaged.
A housing association was looking to increase
the number of volunteering opportunities and
a health body was considering how to involve
patients and carers in raising the performance
of surgeons and hospitals.
Are people willing to help?But the key question was, are people really
willing to help? We asked Survation to run an
opinion poll asking what contribution people
were already making to public services on a
voluntary basis and what would encourage
them to do more.
More people had shared a police crime
alert on social media than the number of
special constables and magistrates combined,
although they probably wouldn’t class
themselves as volunteers. Many people had
reported problems to the authorities and many
more were happy to do so if it was easier –
Other sites I regularly refer to include:
Contextures: http://www.contextures.com/index.htmlChandoo: http://chandoo.org/wp/Daily Dose of Excel: http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/AJP Excel Information: http://andypope.info/index.htmAndrew’s Excel Tips: http://andrewexcel.blogspot.com/p/excel-tips.htmlApplication Professionals: http://www.appspro.com/Beyond Excel: https://sites.google.com/site/beyondexcel/homeBusiness Functions: http://www.businessfunctions.com/index.phpCharts: http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/charts/index.htmlExcel: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htmDatabison: http://www.databison.com/E90E50: https://sites.google.com/site/e90e50/ExcelTables.com: http://exceltables.com/FormXL Pro – VBA101:http://www.vba101.com/formxl-pro/Karl E. Peterson’s Classic VB Code: http://vb.mvps.org/Stephen Bullen’s Excel Page: http://www.oaltd.co.uk/Excel/Pearson Software Consulting: http://www.cpearson.com/excel/MainPage.aspxPeltier Technical Services, Inc.: http://www.peltiertech.com/Ron’s Excel Tips: http://www.rondebruin.nl/tips.htmThe Spreadsheet Guru: http://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/The Spreadsheet Page: http://spreadsheetpage.com/Trump Excel: http://trumpexcel.com/about/ Tushar-Mehta: http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/Vertex42 – Excel Templates, Tutorials & Software: http://www.vertex42.com/
around 3% of people said they had reported
fraud and 15% said they would consider it
in future.
This is all valuable public participation
and we could do with more of it. If policy
makers looked at people power as a spectrum
then they might target resources differently,
understanding which activities are encouraged
relatively easily online and which are best
done at a grassroots level.
Two way conversationsIn our report, we recommend making it easy
to contribute, encouraging more two way
conversations and staying focused on local
activity, although when we asked civil servants
about whether devolution would encourage a
more active contribution from the public, the
results were mixed.
Those who felt it would help (39%)
suggested that people would be more likely to
engage with local issues. The 33% who felt it
would not help were concerned with possible
cost escalation and differences in provision.
Yet with devolution at the heart of the
government’s reform programme, this seems
a great opportunity to look at how we can
reshape the nature of engagement with
public services.
It is clear people are willing to help –
we just need to find the right way to unlock
the potential.
‘People Power’ can be downloaded at
www.northgatepublicservices.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/People-power-
cost-effective-public-participation-April-2015.pdf
Data cleansingTypically, data is published in formats that
can be read by a range of common programs
– text (*.txt), tab delimited (*.tab), comma
delimited (*.csv) or Excel (*.xls, or *.xlsx).
A problem often encountered is that the
data, regardless of the format, will not import
into Excel as one would have wished.
It is preferable to clean the data as far
as possible before attempting any analysis.
Often it is possible to clean data as a whole,
though sometimes some data may require
individual attention.
Typical issues include:
• additional spaces at the start or end of
cells. This can cause problems with the
cell contents being interpreted incorrectly
(numbers regarded as text, for example)
or problems in filtering and sorting
• multiple spaces between words. This again
can cause problems in filtering data when the
additional space causes that two apparently
similar terms or values to be treated as two
distinct ones
• inappropriate number of spaces between words
• dates incorrectly displayed
• inappropriate capitalisation of words
• duplicate data
• general inconsistent formatting issues.
It is highly recommended that time is spent
cleaning the data at the start, as it will save
time and angst later one.
Before attempting to clean data, firstly
ensure that you have a back-up of the data.
It is not uncommon that cleansing may have
expected consequences and sometimes ‘undo’
will not reinstate the data to its original shape.
It is also good practice to format each
column to the appropriate format prior to
starting, though some operations may also
change the format.
Further readingAn expanded version of this article and
accompanying workbook is available for
download on the Institute’s website. This will
cover many issues of data cleansing in more
detail and will demonstrate how some of the
issues may be overcome.
“ These policies might seem incompatible at first, but the digital world continues to change the relationship between people and government, so we wanted to take a closer look.”
Customer service
Sue Holloway describes the advantages of unlocking the potential of ‘People Power’
Sue Holloway is Director of Services Strategy
with Northgate Public Services
Peter Brown was formerly Professor of Property
Taxation at Liverpool John Moores University
Peter Brown continues his new series designed to help readers get around the tricky bits of data handling and analysis
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Pursuit of costs may mean winning the battle
High Court appeal against the magistrates,
despite the fact the Trust was going to pay
the bill.
Considering the matter, the Court observed
that the failure to accept the offer had serious
consequences, stating however that the
jurisdictional point only arises because the
council were not prepared to accept payment
of council tax from somebody other than
Mr Piggin himself. Notwithstanding they had
won the appeal, the Court decided that the
council was not entitled to its costs from
Mr Piggin, “as the whole process could have
been avoided by some common sense being
exercised at a much earlier stage”. Effectively,
if the council had accepted the offer the sum
would have been paid before the matter ever
got near the High Court.
The result is a reminder that all courts
have a wide discretion on costs. Accordingly,
they may refuse an award of costs where
one part has acted unreasonably or caused
unnecessary litigation or prolonged it, or failed
to accept a full settlement.
It should be remembered that the aim of
the civil justice system – of which council tax
is a part, albeit crude in comparison with the
County Court and High Court – is a means to
an end. That end is the settlement of disputes
without recourse to a hearing. Judges at all
levels much prefer it and are keen to see legal
costs limited as part of the administration
of justice. Fighting cases purely on points
of principle is not welcome at any level,
and anyone attempting such a course must
proceed cautiously.
One might have thought that local
authorities had realised the dangers of
pursuing litigation endlessly a quarter of a
The penalty for pursuing a liability order at any
cost has been illustrated in a number of cases
in the last few years, and notably in the High
Court in Wiltshire Council v Piggin (2014)
CO 40116 2 December 2014.
This appeal shows the danger of pressing
enforcement action too far and insisting on
trying to obtain a liability order on every
occasion, and the danger of ploughing on in
litigation, even with a very strong case.
The case arose from an appeal by
Wiltshire Council by way of case stated to
the High Court. The council appealed against
the decision of the South East Wiltshire
Magistrates’ Court on 13th May 2013 not to
make liability against a Mr Michael Piggin over
unpaid council tax in relation to a property in
Salisbury. The sum in question was £1,849.24
for the period from 1st July 2011 to 2nd
November 2012. Mr Piggin appeared in person
at the High Court, whilst wisely the South East
Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court did not appear.
Mr Piggin’s argument had been that the
council tax due on the dwelling was paid by
a trust (essentially, this was a dispute over
liability and the name which should have
appeared on the bill). At the Magistrates’
Court, Mr Piggin raised this as a defence to
the liability order application, drawing the
attention of the Bench to the fact that he was
the non-resident registered owner of property.
The Bench found that Mr Piggin was a trustee
of MC Trust (which existed for the benefit
of his children) and that the trust was the
beneficial owner of the property. At the time
of the liability order hearing Mr Piggin had an
outstanding appeal to the Valuation Tribunal
for England (VTE) over the issue of liability
and accordingly the magistrates rejected the
application for a liability order.
The council appealed to the High Court
against this decision, on the basis that the
liability dispute should not have been dealt
with at the hearing and that this was a matter
for the VTE, as prescribed by Regulation
century ago, for example, in 1989 Re Smith (A Bankrupt) ex parte Braintree District Council [1990] 2 AC 215. Braintree contested
an appeal to the House of Lords concerning an
already bankrupt ratepayer over committal to
prison, purely it seems to establish committal
as punishment for defaulting. Some late
Victorian and Edwardian precedents seemed
to indicate a punitive element to bankruptcy,
but how this would actually make money for
Braintree Council was unclear – it seems it
was a point of principle to somebody on
the council.
However, the House of Lords refused to
follow earlier authority and decided to exercise
its discretion it awarded itself from 1966 to
depart from previous decisions. It decided to
rule that the Edwardian precedents no longer
applied and that the enforcement process was
entirely coercive when it came to committal
– only to be applied when the person had
assets as established by a means enquiry but
was still refusing or failing to pay (confirmed
in R v Poole Magistrates’ Court ex parte Benham (1991) 156 JP 157). Consequently,
high costs were awarded against Braintree for
a contested appeal that was never going to
result in any money in any event.
At the other end of the scale, I have
encountered similar situations in the
magistrates’ court, when an authority has
refused to take money for ‘administrative convenience’ and insisting on getting a
liability order. However, I am afraid that this
often does not impress magistrates and
an authority may be penalised in costs.
‘Administrative convenience’ is not
acceptable as an excuse for turning down an
acceptable offer, refusing cash presented prior
57(1) of the Council Tax (Administration
and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 S.I
613. In essence, it became an appeal on a
jurisdictional point.
At the High Court, Williams J swiftly agreed
with the council, notwithstanding conflicting
Divisional Court authorities. The magistrates
had been wrong to refuse the liability order
on the grounds that they did – the question
of whether Mr Piggin or MC Trust should pay
was one for the VTE, not the magistrates.
The Court held, “It doubtless would have
been sensible on ... for the magistrates at that
point to have adjourned any consideration of
liability to await the outcome of what were
then extant First Tier Tribunal proceedings.
Insofar as any appeal process remains in
train when the magistrates come to consider
it again, then doubtless they will consider
it sensible to await the conclusion of that
appeal process. That is a matter for them to
judge. All that I determine is that the decision
they made on 13th May 2013 was outside
their jurisdiction.”
From Wiltshire Council’s point of view, the
High Court had agreed with its argument
and it was duly ordered that the magistrates
should look at the case again. So far, so good!
However, it is what happened next in the
appeal which was to prove the most significant
outcome. Having won its point, Wiltshire
Council applied for costs, against Mr Piggin.
Now had Mr Piggin had the benefit of proper
advice before the High Court appeal he might
well have decided to follow the example of
the magistrates and not make an appearance,
unless he had a novel or sophisticated legal
objection to present.
Normally, the rule in litigation is that
‘costs follow the event’ and that the
loser pays the costs of the winner. As the
magistrates had not attended the hearing or
taken part in it, they were not at risk of having
a costs order against them – nothing perverse
or irrational could be shown about their error
to court, or simple irrationality or laziness.
Even where a council may ultimately
succeed in obtaining a liability order it
may find the magistrates refusing a costs
application for maladministration.
In one case I was involved with in 2011, a
local authority pursued a lady whom they had
already bankrupted for council tax for a sum
of £348 on a technical point. I defended her
and summonses against her were thrown out
twice, but still the council concerned came
back. After nearly a year of adjournments,
stops and starts, eventually the council turned
up some evidence that she was no longer
bankrupt and had been discharged (having
been forced to move, she had never learned
of this, correspondence having gone to her old
address from which she had been evicted).
Eventually in 2013 the local authority were
able to prove their case and then decided
to present a bill for costs for over £800.
However, the magistrates’ court reviewing
the history of the case decided these were
excessive in the circumstances, awarding only
£200. So effectively the local authority, on
its own figures, had spent more on a case
than the historic liability was worth – a pyrrhic
victory. It proved that although you may win
the battle you can ultimately lose the war, at
least in financial terms. Discretion should be
the watchword, particularly with legal appeals,
for as Shakespeare’s put it in Measure for
Measure, “It is excellent to have a giant’s
strength, but it is tyrannous to use it as a
giant”. It can be costly too!
of law so they were not exposed to costs (see
R v Newcastle Under Lyme Magistrates’ Court [1995] 1 All ER 125). However, Mr
Piggin had attended the High Court and
argued against the appeal. So Wiltshire Council
wanted a costs order against him. The council
wanted the sum of £3,182, to be precise, and
the Court found this ‘relatively modest’ by
the standard of High Court costs.
However, in deciding whether costs should
be awarded, the Court took into consideration
the wider circumstances and, in particular,
the history of the case and the conduct of
both sides. It seemed that Mr Piggin did not
have much money himself, and the trust was
to safeguard such assets as his family had,
and himself. Most importantly, it identified
that Mr Piggin had actually offered to pay the
sum owed in council tax at an earlier stage,
including paying it in cash to settle the matter
at the liability order stage. Unfortunately,
the evidence accepted by the Court showed
that that this offer had not been taken up
by Wiltshire Council, who had proceeded
to appeal.
From this, he developed an argument
against the costs order being made against
him. Mr Piggin further explained that after the
hearing, he immediately wrote on behalf of the
MC Trust as trustee requesting a bill directed
to either the Trust or himself as Trustee,
stating that on receipt of the bill it would be
paid in full within seven days. However, the
council had decided neither to take the money
nor respond to the offer to pay.
Williams J asked the obvious question –
“Why did not the council say to the court,
‘Well, here is the offer. We will adjourn these
proceedings for a month to see if this money
is forthcoming and then if it is, well, these
enforcement proceedings frankly will be
academic. I mean, we may not agree that MC
Trusts are liable, but what does it matter? We
have got our cash.’”
Instead, the council had commenced their
“ Some late Victorian and Edwardian precedents seemed to indicate a punitive element to bankruptcy, but how this would actually make money for Braintree Council was unclear – it seems it was a point of principle to somebody on the council.”
“ The magistrates had been wrong to refuse the liability order on the grounds that they did - the question of whether Mr Piggin or MC Trust should pay was one for the VTE, not the magistrates.”
Legal view
...but you may ultimately lose the war, warns Alan Murdie
Alan Murdie is a Barrister
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Budget 2015
Business• Corporation tax is to be cut to 19% in 2017
and 18% in 2020
• the permanent ‘non-dom’ status is to be
abolished from April 2017 – anyone who
has lived in the UK for 15 of the past 20
years will pay the same level of tax as other
UK citizens
• £7.2bn is to be raised from the clampdown
on tax avoidance and tax evasion, with
HMRC’s budget increased by £750m
• the bank levy rate is to be gradually reduced
over the next six years and a new 8%
surcharge on bank profits introduced from
January 2016
• there will be a cap on charges imposed
by claims management companies and an
increase in insurance premium tax to 9.5%
from November
• there will be a new apprenticeship levy for
large employers
• the climate change levy exemption for
renewable electricity is to be removed
• the National Insurance employment
allowance for small firms is to be increased
by 50% to £3,000 from 2016
• the dividend tax credit is to be replaced
with a new tax free allowance of £5,000 on
dividend income. Rates of dividend tax are to
be set at 7.5%, 32.5% and 38.1%.
Housing/infrastructure/ transport/regions• control over fire services, planning and children’s
services is to be handed to a consortium of ten
councils in Greater Manchester
• discussions on devolution of services to
Sheffield, Liverpool and West Yorkshire are
to be held
• the award of £30m for a new body,
Transport for North, to promote integrated
transport – including the use of Oyster cards
– in the north of England
• the ‘rent-a-room’ relief scheme will rise
to £7,500.
The quest for digitally enabled services goes onAccording to a report in Public Finance, the
Local Digital Alliance, which includes the
Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG), the Local Government
Association, the Society of Local Authority
Chief Executives, CIPFA and the Society of
Council IT Managers, is working on proposals
to make local services in England more
digitally enabled.
The Alliance has been working to
identify good practice and highlight further
opportunities for digital working, following a
request in the March Budget for joint proposals
from the sector in time to inform future budget
allocations.
Discussions and workshops to date have
revealed a need to generate better baseline
comparators, develop a deeper understanding
of how digital can be used to support
complex service interventions and strengthen
leadership and capability in the field.
The Deputy Director of Digital and
Corporate Communications at DCLG, said:
“Local government has a long track record in
successfully harnessing digital technologies
to drive innovation and deliver better, more
efficient services; but this good practice is not
yet uniform across the sector.”
In order to capture some comparable baseline
information required, council chief executives
are being asked to complete a survey.
SummaryThe major emphasis of this budget has been
the government’s objective of cutting £12bn
from the welfare budget. So what does this
mean to benefit claimants:
• only the lowest-income families will be able
to claim tax credits. Together with changes to
entitlement to UC, this will cut £2.9bn from
the welfare bill in the next financial year and
£3.4bn a year by 2020/21. For example,
the income threshold for tax credits is to be
reduced from £6,420 to £3,850
• larger families will be particularly hit by tax
credit changes if they have children from April
2017. Claimants will see child tax credits and
UC limited to the first two children. At present
about 870,000 families claiming tax credits
have three or more children - about one in
five families receive tax credit. However, it will
only be those larger families making a claim,
or having more children, from April 2017 that
will be affected
• in addition, many working age benefits will
be frozen for four years, such as tax credits
and local housing allowance, but excluding
maternity pay and disability benefits. This is a
cut to the welfare bill of £4bn by 2020/21
• the benefits cap – the maximum amount a
household can receive in benefits - will be
reduced. For those living outside of London
it will drop to £20,000. For those living in
London, where housing costs are higher, the
cap will be £23,000.
In 2013 the government capped the amount
of benefit families could receive at £500 per
week, or £26,000 a year. Only a tiny fraction
of benefit recipients got more than that –
27,000 families. It saved an amount equivalent
to £100 million - which may sound a lot, but
it ’s less than half a per cent of the welfare bill.
Of those 27,000 some suffered large cuts
in their housing benefit – up to £46 a week.
So were they induced by this stick to go back
to work? A study by the Department for Work
Budget 2015The Press was full of doom and gloom about
the July budget prior to the event – particularly
in relation to welfare benefits – so what is the
reality:
Personal taxation and pay• the introduction of a new national living
wage for all workers aged over 25, starting
at £7.20 an hour from April 2016 and set to
reach £9 by 2020 – giving an estimated 2.5
million people an average £5,000 rise over
five years
• the Low Pay Commission is to advise on
future changes to the rate
• the inheritance tax threshold will increase to
£1m, phased in from 2017
• the annual personal allowance, at which
people start paying tax, to rise to £11,000
next year
• plans are to raise the personal allowance to
£12,500 by 2020, so that people working 30
hours a week on the minimum wage do not
pay income tax
• the point at which people start paying
income tax at 40p is to rise from £42,385 to
£43,000 next year
• mortgage interest relief for buy-to-let
homebuyers is to be restricted to the basic
rate of income tax.
• the new national living wage will have a
major impact on local government budgets
and comes at a time when budgets are
under extreme pressure because of the cuts
over the past few years.
Welfare and pensions• tax credits and Universal Credit (UC) are to
be restricted to two children, affecting those
born after April 2017
• the income threshold for tax credits is to be
reduced from £6,420 to £3,850
• rents in the social housing sector will be
reduced by 1% a year for the next four years
• subsidies for social housing will be phased
out, with local authority and housing
and Pensions, supervised by the Institute of
Fiscal Studies (IFS), found that a minority were
indeed induced to go back to work. But in
spite of being made up to £46 a week poorer,
the majority did not.
The IFS concluded, “For this majority, it
remains an open question as to how they
adjusted to what were, in many cases, very
large reductions in their income.”
association tenants in England who earn
more than £30,000 – or £40,000 in London
– having to pay up to the market rent
• disability benefits will not be taxed or means-
tested while the state pension ‘triple lock’ is
to be protected
• Employment and Support Allowance
payments for claimants deemed able to
prepare for work is to be ‘aligned’ with
Jobseeker’s Allowance for new claimants
• a Green Paper will be published on
proposals for ‘a radical change’ to pension
saving systems
• the amount people can contribute to
their pension tax free is to be reduced for
individuals with incomes over £150,000,
including pension contributions
• the cost of funding free TV licences for the over-
75s will be transferred from the government to
the BBC between 2018 and 2021
• the annual household benefit cap will be
reduced to £23,000 in London and to
£20,000 in the rest of Britain
• 18-21-year-olds will not be entitled to claim
housing benefit automatically, with a new
‘earn to learn’ obligation
• working age benefits are to be frozen for
four years – including tax credits and local
housing allowance – but maternity pay and
disability benefits are exempted.
Public borrowing/deficit/spending• the deficit is to be cut at the same pace as
during the last Parliament
• borrowing is set to fall from £69.5bn this
year to £43.1bn, £24.3bn and £6bn before
reaching a £10bn surplus in 2019/20
• debt as a share of GDP is to fall from 80.3%
this year to 79.1%, 77.2%, 74.7%, 71.5%
and 68.5% in successive years
• the 1% public sector pay rise is to continue
for the next four years
• there will be £37bn of further spending cuts
by 2020, including £12bn of welfare cuts
and £5bn from tax avoidance.
“The new national living wage will have a major impact on local government budgets and comes at a time when budgets are under extreme pressure because of the cuts over the past few years.”
“ In order to capture some comparable baseline information required, council chief executives are being asked to complete a survey.”
Doherty’s despatchDoherty’s despatch
Pat Doherty is back with a guide to the parts of the 2015 Budget that touch on our profession
Pat Doherty FIRRV CPFA is an
independent consultant and a Past President
of the IRRV. If you wish to comment on
anything in this article, please email him
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Thinking aboutrecruiting?
I’ve been thinking a bit about recruitment
over the last few weeks, as we have had a
couple of vacancies and it has been quite
eye-opening. Like most long in the tooth
recruiters it seems second nature, yet my
managers have had little experience and we
have had to revisit many of the principles. I
thought it may be useful to reproduce a check
list and some good practice for the process.
Those of you who are in smaller firms or do
not have ‘HR’ to rely on may find it useful.
1. You have a vacancy... but do you need to
fill it? This is a chance to consider the role
in the organisation – do you have more
pressing needs that are underutilised, or
should you restructure?
2. Once you are satisfied that you do need
to fill it, you then need to revisit the
job description (JD) and the person specification (PS). Are they up to date
and correct? You are replacing someone
who may have been doing the job for years
and you want to make sure that the person
with the right skills and knowledge comes
to the organisation. Get someone else
to look at the documents (the outgoing
member of staff or colleagues, perhaps)
– are all the key duties and skills covered?
Is the grade up to date and in step with
other posts? The worst thing you can do
is find that most of the work is covered by
‘any other duties’ and of course getting
this wrong can lead to disputes or even
grievances, which can destroy team morale
and take up a lot of time.
3. The next step is advertising. Where are
you going to advertise? Do you need to
advertise in specialist journals in the
industry, or will local recruitment from
the job centre, local websites and job clubs suffice? You need to consider your
budget and the intended audience.
Is your advert attractive, aimed at the
right audience and likely to encourage interest? There are some really good
adverts around, so do some scouting
around first and get ideas. Don’t make it
too ‘gimmicky ’, but check that it reflects
the culture of your organisation and will
attract the right type of person. Would
you want to apply for the job from the
advert? Would your colleagues?
4. Once you have your applicants, choose those
for interview or assessment. Remember
that you should remove the personal
information from the forms to avoid any
conscious or unconscious bias. Collating
information on candidates is fine (sex, age,
ethnicity, disability, etc.) but these have no
place in determining the interviewees, so a
detachable front page with the remaining
parts of the forms numbered will allow for
complete impartiality by the assessors.
5. Interview/assessment. Remember
that you are selling your organisation as
much as you are interviewing the candidate,
so prepare well and think about the room,
the format and the questions. Are you
including a tour, and how many people are
involved in the interview?
Are you including assessments or tests?
These can have their place if they are
valid, but a good well structured interview
is the core, as you want to know whether
the person is a good fit for your team –
and there is no substitute for face to face
meetings. Tests and tasks, however, can
help assess abilities and are well established
in recruitment.
6. Take your time to make your decision,
review the interviews and test scores and
who is the best fit for the office. Many
candidates will press for an answer on the
day of interview – obviously you do not
want to keep people waiting unduly long,
but a decision need not be given on the
day. When you do make the offer, have
the information with you for salary, etc.,
and know where your limits are should the
candidate wish to negotiate.
7. Finally, remember that you do not have to
appoint. If the right candidate did not come
along, maybe you just got something wrong.
Review the JD and PS, the advert and the
places you advertised. Maybe the timing
was wrong – review and go out again. It is
better to get it right than to compromise on
a candidate who may leave or have to be
dismissed during probation.
“The worst thing you can do is find that most of the work is covered by ‘any other duties’ and of course getting this wrong can lead to disputes or even grievances, which can destroy team morale and take up a lot of time.”
Viewpoint
Julie Holden’s latest column provides a handy checklist for those with responsibility for interviewing for staff
Julie Holden IRRV (Hons) MCMI CMg is
Town Clerk with East Grinstead Town Council
and a Past President of the IRRV
Annual Scottish Conference & ExhibitionService Delivery – fit for the challenge
T: 01382 456029
W: www.irrvscotland.org.uk
The Crieff Hydro Hotel, Crieff2nd and 3rd September 2015The Institute is delighted to announce details of its 2015 Scottish Conference. The Conference is – by popular demand - returning to the Crieff Hydro Hotel, where conference attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy the excellent recreational facilities set in beautiful surroundings. The theme of this year’s Conference – “Service Delivery – fit for the challenge” – comes at an important time for Scotland and will look in-depth at the key issues facing the public services, with particular emphasis on valuation, benefits and revenues issues. In addition to delivering key updates on the big issues and encouraging debate about these, conference will also examine the improved delivery of Scottish public services in a time of financial challenges and will examine how to provide quality services and continuous improvement into the future. Conference 2015 will cover key issues with first-class speakers.
For more information and booking please email [email protected]
Special Offer:
Every fourth delegate (of the same delegate rate type) from the same organisation comes entirely free of charge.
IRRV Publications
T: 020 7691 8977
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Annotated Council Tax Legislation is a comprehensive 3 volume set, containing all the relevant parts of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as well as appropriate sections and schedules from the Local Government Acts of 1997, 2003 and 2012, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Greater London Authority Act 1999 and the Localism Act 2011.
All statutory instruments from 1992 to the publication date are included, and all amendments brought about by these regulations and orders have been made to the originating text.
Annotated Council Tax Legislation is supplied in hard copy format together with an electronic PDF version.
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IRRV Publications
T: 020 7691 8977
W: www.irrv.net
Annotated Council Tax Legislation is a comprehensive 3 volume set, containing all the relevant parts of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 as well as appropriate sections and schedules from the Local Government Acts of 1997, 2003 and 2012, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Greater London Authority Act 1999 and the Localism Act 2011.
All statutory instruments from 1992 to the publication date are included, and all amendments brought about by these regulations and orders have been made to the originating text.
Annotated Council Tax Legislation is supplied in hard copy format together with an electronic PDF version.
Fees:
New Subscription . . . . . . . . .£195.00 plus VAT and £17.00 p&pUpdate Fee . . . . . . . . . . . .£145.00 plus VAT and £17.00 p&p
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IRRV Jobs Online
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Jobs Online is a web based job vacancy service offering organisations a platform from which to advertise their jobs throughout the UK to professionals in the fields of revenues, benefits and valuation. The site offers search facilities by location, salary level or area of interest for people looking for a job. Your subscription to jobs online includes the following:
• Publicationofanunlimitednumberofjobadvertisementsonthewebthroughout your subscription period
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