Joint board on sound footing

NEIL MCGRORY

The organisation which decides how much council tax property owners have to pay and updates the electoral register, is on a better financial footing than previously forecast.

Lanarkshire Valuation Joint Board met at South Lanarkshire Council’s Hamilton headquarters earlier this month and reviewed the latest report on its budget position.

It has underspent by more than £300,000 so will be able to transfer £465,000 to reserves.

The underspend results from staff turnover, which means it has spent £600,000 less on salaries and other costs than expected.

As there are several vacant valuer posts, the LVJB expects to overspend on training costs as trainees need to attend college or university to gain more qualifications before filling these roles.

The Lanarkshire LVJB consists of members of North and South Lanarkshire councils, with eight councillors from each local authority serving on the board.

One major aspect of the organisation’s work is dealing with requests for properties to be revalued for council tax banding purposes.

The number of such appeals has increased significantly since a revaluation process took place in 2017.

The board received 9281 appeals in relation to this revaluation, up 23 per cent over the previous revaluation in 2010.

Of these appeals, 3071 are outstanding and must be processed by December 2020 as required by the Scottish Government.

Annual canvassing, part of ongoing work to update the electoral register, has seen officers from the VJB visit more than 100,000 Lanarkshire households between September and October.

Due to the snap general election, publication of the revised register was brought forward to November 12.

The LVJB also had to help prepare for two by-elections, in the North Lanarkshire ward of Thorniewood in September and East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire in August.

There were no reported problems during either event.