In October this year, Destin Solutions and partners Wilks Head & Eve (WHE) won the award for Excellence in ‘Partnership Working’ in the Financial Stability category at the IRRV Awards. The partnership was formed five years ago with the purpose of providing Councils with an all-encompassing rate-finding service, combining leading edge technology development and automation with expert rating knowledge.
Technology automation to identify properties not liable for tax
The partnership is primarily based around the NEXUS solution, which was designed to automate the process of identifying both commercial and domestic properties which were missing from either the banding or rating list. WHE recognised that they could use this technology to adapt and innovate their existing ‘Rateable Value Finder’ service by identifying opportunities for automation that would ultimately maximise revenue for their customers.
Combining rating expertise with technology automation had never been applied in this way before, and thanks must go to those Local Authorities who invested in the solution and provided financial updates on the additional revenue they gained by using it which supported the award entry.
Additional revenue being generated for Local Authorities
Our latest figures indicate that across the 66 Councils in England who currently have access to NEXUS, 2,500 properties have been identified as not being liable for tax, resulting in an extra annual income of at least £5 million being generated for those clients. We expect these figures to continue to grow as the NEXUS solution evolves and in addition to highlighting missing properties we are now able to identify instances where changes need to be made to existing council tax and NNDR liability. A typical example of this is through the identification of properties which have added annexes, loft or basement conversions.
How the technology works
The solution itself is very much data driven, combining Local Authority datasets with external datasets and a spatial database to be able to pinpoint using a traffic light system at street level, any properties and/or businesses which do not have a listing on either the rating or banding list. Following this, detailed reports are sent to Local Authorities providing enough information for them to prepare submissions to the VOA or for those WHE clients with the NEXUS Professional service, this is done on their behalf.
The WHE NEXUS Professional Service also has the added benefit of having access to the WHE rating experts who will detect changes within existing business properties to increase the rateable value of a property and generate additional revenue for their clients.
What the IRRV awards panel had to say
When asked about the award entry itself the IRRV awards panel commented “It was felt staff were earnest and showed real enthusiasm for their work. The partnership emphasised their goal of increasing revenue for local government. They were able to combine local government, financial and surveying knowledge, which gave them a unique insight into their work. An appreciation of the financial challenges faced by local authorities was also demonstrated.”
If you’re not already using NEXUS and want to find it more about how it can help generate revenue for your Authority, contact us now for more info >
