Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the the potential impact of changes in business rates on serviced office buildings.

It is the Valuation Office Agency’s (VOA) statutory duty to maintain up-to-date Rating Lists and they are required by law to review and correct assessments if supported by evidence.

Following developments in case law, the VOA have been reviewing their approach to valuing serviced offices for business rates, including seeking legal advice on a range of agreements between owners or operators and individual occupiers.

The VOA have concluded that, rather than each room within a serviced office being assessed separately, most serviced offices will need to be assessed as a single property, unless clear evidence demonstrates a need to split.