VOA challenge outcomes · 2023-24

Challenge your council tax band: success rates by area

Challenging a band review rarely backfires. Across England & Wales, of the band reviews the Valuation Office (part of HMRC) resolved in 2023-24, about 41% ended in a lower band and fewer than 1% went up.

In 2023-24, 42,890 band challenges were resolved across 318 billing authorities, and 27.3% resulted in a band reduction. In England, only about 9% of resolved proposals are later escalated to the Valuation Tribunal — most are settled with the Valuation Office directly.

Source: VOA Council Tax: Challenges and Changes, 2023-24 (Open Government Licence v3.0). The total above is summed from authority-level counts (each rounded to the nearest 10 by the Valuation Office), so it runs slightly higher than the Valuation Office's published England & Wales headline of ~39,590 resolved.

01 By area

Success rates by region

East Midlands — 24% of 3,330 challenges reduced
East of England — 26% of 4,200 challenges reduced
London — 17.6% of 5,960 challenges reduced
North East — 27.8% of 1,260 challenges reduced
North West — 34.4% of 5,470 challenges reduced
South East — 26.2% of 8,140 challenges reduced
South West — 32.6% of 5,710 challenges reduced
Wales — 35.1% of 1,940 challenges reduced
West Midlands — 26.6% of 3,310 challenges reduced
Yorkshire and the Humber — 28% of 3,570 challenges reduced

02 Check your band

Is your band worth challenging?

03 Go deeper

Follow the thread

Challenge success by council Where appeals actually win The UK council tax map Every authority, any metric What could you reclaim? Backdated refund estimate