District Valuer
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The Valuation Office Agency is a government body in England and Wales. It is an executive agency of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
The Agency values properties for the purpose of Council Tax and for non-domestic rates in England and Wales (in Scotland this function is performed by the Scottish Assessors). This work is undertaken on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government in England, and the Welsh Assembly Government in Wales.
The Agency also provides additional valuation services to HM Revenue and Customs through its District Valuer Services business stream. This includes property valuations for the purpose of assessing taxes, such as capital gains and inheritance tax. District Valuer Services also provide a wide range of valuation services to the public sector, such as asset valuations for resource accounting and compulsory purchase advice on the purchase and sale of property, specialist building surveying advice, and valuation of mineral bearing property, landfill sites and plant and machinery.
Since April 2008 following a restructure, District Valuer Services has been divided into National and Central Services, who look after the Agency's statutory services to HMRC, and Commercial Services who provide commercial property valuation services to the public sector. The restructuring of the commercial side of the business has been particularly significant as senior managers are now responsible for customer facing sectors of work - such as health or transport and infrastructure - rather than regions, creating a much poorer service.
The predecessors of the Valuation Office Agency were the separate Valuation Office organisations in England and Wales (established in 1910) and in Scotland (established in 1911). The Valuation Office Agency was created as a merger of these two and became a Next Steps Agency of the Inland Revenue on 30 September 1991.
The VOA employs 3,990 people (full-time equivalent) in 86 offices. It is the largest single employer of Chartered Surveyors in the UK. The current Chief Executive is Penny Ciniewicz appointed in September 2009.
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