Valuation Office Agency

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of domestic properties in England with dwellinghouse data are classified by the Valuation Office Agency with a dwellinghouse code of (a) Heating Y and (b) Heating N.

Mr. Woolas
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 6 November 2006, Official Report, column 900W.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic properties in England are classified by the Valuation Office Agency with a dwellinghouse code of FC.

Mr. Woolas
963,371 (as at 3 November 2006).

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will place in the Library a copy of the contract between the Valuation Office Agency and Cole Layer Trumble.

Mr. Woolas
No such contract exists.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what use the Valuation Office Agency makes of the techniques of (a) variography and (b) similarity matrices for valuation purposes.

Mr. Woolas
None.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) property, (b) geo-spatial and (c) geo-demographic attributes are covered by the Valuation Office Agency's dwelling house code of (i) WK: Other building/feature and (ii) EF: Functional/economic factor.

Mr. Woolas
The Valuation Office Agency's code of WK can be used to flag the existence of a building occupied together with a dwelling, or a feature associated with a dwelling, that might have value significance but is not covered by any other of the value significant codes.

The code EF can be used to flag any functional or economic factor associated with a dwelling that might have value significance.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how the Valuation Office Agency gathers data for the property attribute of number of bathrooms to use in its multiple regression analysis within its computer assisted mass appraisal system.

Mr. Woolas
Data was initially gathered from digitisation of the VGA’s paper-based records and will continue to be collected, as circumstances allow, for new or altered properties as part of its ongoing statutory responsibility to maintain the current council tax valuation lists.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether (a) access to on-street parking spaces and (b) the number of (i) garage spaces and (ii) off-street parking spaces are (A) value significant and (B) dwellinghouse code property attributes in the Valuation Office Agency’s automated valuation model.

Mr. Woolas
The (a) existence of on-street parking and (b) number of (i) garage spaces and (ii) off-street parking spaces (A) may be value significant and (B) can be captured as property attribute codes for possible use within the Valuation Office Agency’s automated valuation model.

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic properties in England are classified by the Valuation Office Agency with a dwellinghouse code of (a) Conservatory Type: D, (b) Conservatory Type: S, (c) Conservatory Type: G and (d) Conservatory Type: U.

Mr. Woolas
The information requested is as follows:

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|                           |Conservatory type dwellinghouse code|Number |
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|(a)                        |D                                   |86,811 |
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|(b)                        |S                                   |62,411 |
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|(c)                        |G                                   |43,174 |
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|(d)                        |U                                   |522,433|
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|Note:As at 3 November 2006.|                                    |       |
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