To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 1184W, on inheritance tax: housing, what the differences are between a locality and a locality group in relation to the use made of them by the Valuation Office Agency. (270666)

Localities are geographic areas of dwellings, which are subject to the same or similar market forces. Locality groups comprise a set of one or more localities, which are subject to similar market forces.

The Valuation Office Agency’s Council Tax Banding Support Tool makes use of locality and locality group. The tool uses modelling techniques to identify properties that are most closely comparable to a given subject (in terms of location and property attributes) and provides the bandings of those properties. It initially searches for comparables within a subject property’s immediate locality and, only where insufficient suitable comparables are available within the locality, will the remainder of the locality group be searched.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 1184W, on inheritance tax: housing, if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance the Valuation Office Agency uses on making use of localities and locality groups within the council tax banding support tool. (270667)

The guidance produced for the council tax banding support tool comprises technical instruction on the use of a VOA internal IT application. It is not appropriate to publish information which might assist unauthorised access to VOA systems or databases.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 940W, on valuation: housing, how many locality groups in England were used by the Valuation Office Agency in (a) 2008, (b) 2007 and (c) 2006. (270669)

The number of locality groups identified by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is liable to change during the course of a year to reflect the housing market. The following are approximate numbers of locality groups in England:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 6 November 2008, Official Report, column 682W, on housing: valuation, if he will rank each individual locality reference in each valuation area in the South West according to value significance. (270671)

A list of locality reference numbers, ranked in order of value significance by Valuation Area within the Valuation Office Agency’s South West Group, has been placed in the Library. The list is based on data extracted on 22 February 2009.

The release of information that identifies the extent and location of each locality, relative to the list of numbers that ranks each individual locality, would prejudice commercial interests.