Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of adequacy of resources available to the Valuation Office Agency during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Treasury continues to provide the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) with the resources required successfully to deliver the valuations and property advice needed to support taxation and benefits. The VOA has received additional funding to deliver their operational activities including an extra £9m in 2018-19 and £25m in 2019-20, on top of its core budget and an additional £11.5m at Budget 2020 to modernise its IT systems.

The VOA has received a high increase in volumes with the check and challenge service as a consequence of COVID-19 which has put pressure on the service. These volumes are monitored actively and the VOA continues to flex resource to meet changing demand.

The Treasury works closely with the VOA and its sponsor department, HMRC, to understand the VOA’s resource requirements and is considering the appropriate level of funding for the next financial year as part of the current Spending Round.