Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) backlog of cases and (b) average time taken by the Valuation Office Agency’s to process applications to transfer short-term rental properties between business rates and council tax; and what steps she is taking to help improve performance.

The Government has announced that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will be integrated into HMRC by April 2026. Moving the VOA’s functions into HMRC will increase oversight and accountability to Ministers over delivery of their priorities to modernise the tax system and improve the experience of taxpayers and businesses.

On average, the VOA is clearing cases relating to self-catering properties in England and Wales within four months.

Currently, the VOA is working as quickly as possible to clear any outstanding cases, focusing on the oldest cases first, and those where customers are facing financial hardship.

More widely, it is replacing IT systems with modern cloud-based platforms that will deliver significant efficiencies across its work. It is also upskilling its workforce so they can handle multiple types of cases, and improving its digital services to make it easier for customers to self-serve.