Holiday Accommodation: Council Tax
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to address delays by the Valuation Office Agency in undertaking tax band valuations for holiday let accommodation in Wales.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
Since the legislative changes introduced on 1 April 2023, the Valuation Office (VO), which is part of HMRC, has seen a sustained increase in case volumes.
The VO are working hard to bring response times down and clear cases within 90 days. Additional resources have been allocated to self-catering cases, including the centralisation of the team to improve efficiency and processing times. The VO have also dedicated resources to look at the most challenging cases and requests where customers are experiencing financial hardship. Additionally, as part of HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap update 2026 The VO have pledged to reduce the average time for the VO to make a decision on self-catering properties to one month by October 2027
The VO is responsible for assessing properties for Council Tax and business rates purposes, whereas local councils are responsible for billing. As this is devolved to the Welsh Government, it would be for their Ministers to comment on any impact made on the amount of Council Tax that has been collected.
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