Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums wins landmark business rate case 8 Aug 2022

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums has won a landmark case against the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) meaning that it will only have to pay nominal business rates for three of its museums: Shipley Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, and South Shields Museum. The VOA took a case to The Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal to argue that the museum’s rateable value should be based on the socio-economic value it provided to the community. The judgement said that value could not be based on a socio-economic benefits that accrue to the community and not the museum operator – and that it is in any case not possible to quantify the social value to the local authority of that public benefit.

The judgement provides TWAM with substantial backdated savings as well as future ones, and should change the way that most museums in England and Wales are valued for business rates – leading to savings, especially for loss-making institutions. However, rateable values will not be reduced automatically, so museums will probably have to go through an appeals process to get the benefit. This latest judgement is one of a series of victories for museums in court against the VOA,  with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, and the Yorkshire Museum receiving much reduced business rates in recent years. TWAM’s Head of Finance, Governance and Resources Jackie Reynolds said “we are delighted to see the original decision in our case being upheld. We fundamentally believe that museums should not be penalised with large rates bills for simply delivering the benefits that we clearly do for our local communities.” Colin Hunter of Lambert Smith Hamilton, who has advised museums in this and previous VOA cases said “this is an important case overturning the Valuation Officer’s approach to valuing museums which has been based on assertion that museums must have value and not on evidence. This case also has implications not just for museums but for other cultural venues such as theatres.”