Homes 'undervalued in council tax survey': The Institute of Geographers' Conference

TYPICAL council tax payers are likely to find that their bills are significantly higher than the government predicted, according to researchers.

Geographers at Bristol University and the University of Wales say they have made the first detailed examination of the valuations given to properties in April 1991.

Dr Paul Longley and Dr Gary Higgs told the conference their findings suggested systematic and widespread undervaluation would cut the number of properties falling in band D, the base from which local levels of council tax will be determined.

From their study of 800 properties out of 48,000 in inner-city Cardiff, the researchers conclude that properties have been systematically undervalued, with the result that far more properties than predicted are falling in the lower bands, B and C. As a consequence, taxpayers in Band D homes will find themselves paying about 5 per cent more - typically about pounds 30 in the case of Cardiff - than suggested by government guidelines.

Dr Longley said properties were being squeezed down towards lower bands. The Cardiff survey was based on December 1991 asking prices for houses coming on to the market, identified as beacon properties typical of general property prices in their areas.

The research suggested that any inflation of the valuations in their study caused by looking at asking prices rather than the actual prices at which properties changed hands, was more than compensated-for by the general decline in property prices in Cardiff over the eight months after the official banding valuations.