Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken is by the Valuation Office Agency to assess new properties to give them a council tax band; and how many such cases have taken longer than three months in the last three years.

Most recent information from operational systems shows that between 01 March 2013 and 29 February 2016, the Valuation Office Agency took an average (mean) of 17.5 working days to update the Council Tax Valuation Lists for England and Wales with entries for new properties. Out of these, 23,599 cases (representing 5% of the total) took longer than 3 months (defined as 60 working days). Over 99% of all cases are resolved within the first 4 months.