Councillor Andrew Morrison (East Renfrewshire Council) and Councillor Colin McCulloch and Councillor Sam Mullin (Renfrewshire Council).

There were no declarations of interest or transparency statements intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted the Minute of the meeting of this Joint Board held on 12 September 2025.  

DECIDED: That the Minute be approved.

There was submitted a revenue budget monitoring report by the Treasurer in respect of the Joint Board for the period to 17 October 2025. The report intimated that at the end of period 7, the Joint Board had a year-to-date underspend against budget of £67,000 and was projected to underspend by £132,000 against budget by the end of the financial year, as detailed in section 4 of the report. Section 3 of the report provided detail on the three budget adjustments since the start of the financial year.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

Under reference to item 6 of the Minute of the meeting of this Joint Board held on 12 September 2025, there was submitted a report by the Assessor & Electoral Registration Officer providing updates on Electoral Registration, legislation and electoral events.

The report provided updates since the last meeting of the Joint Board in relation to the 2025 Canvass; elections; the Elections Act 2022; the Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Act; and the second review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries.

DECIDED: That the contents of the report be noted.

Under reference to item 7 of the Minute of the meeting of this Joint Board held on 12 September 2025, there was submitted an amended report by the Assistant Assessor & Electoral Registration Officer providing an update to the ongoing reporting of performance for the first six months of the rating year.

The report advised that the time taken to enter new houses into the Valuation (Council Tax) List met both the target of 95% within three months and 97% within six months, by achieving 97.53% and 98.77% respectively; that the average number of days taken to add a house in each constituent authority area in the reporting period was 35.53 days, below the target of 38 days; that 385 properties had been deleted from the Valuation (Council Tax) List in the reporting period; and that the time taken to make statutory amendments to the Valuation Roll, excluding appeal settlements and amendments to the prescribed entries, exceeded both the target of 60% to be actioned within three months and 75% to be actioned within six months, by achieving 74.72% and 96.65% respectively.  

DECIDED: That the contents of the report be noted.

Under reference to item 8 of the Minute of the meeting of this Joint Board held on 12 September 2025, there was submitted a report by the Assistant Assessor & Electoral Registration Officer relative to the 2023 Revaluation and Running Roll proposals and appeals and the disposal of the 2017 Revaluation and Running Roll appeals.

DECIDED: That the contents of the report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Assessor & Electoral Registration Officer relative to the next Revaluation of all non-domestic property which would come into effect on 1 April 2026 and which would be the first Revaluation delivered on the new three-yearly cycle. The report advised that work had been undertaken to ensure that local systems were in place to assist in the analysis of rental and other information and the revaluation of approximately 14,600 non-domestic subjects within the Valuation Rolls of East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire.

The report provided detail in relation to the progress of the Revaluation; the joint work with other Assessors throughout Scotland via the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA); and the SAA Pre-agreement Framework R2006. 

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Assessor & Electoral Registration Officer providing updates in relation to staffing, property and Council Tax. 

In relation to staffing, the report noted that the Information Manager would retire at the end of November and that following a review within the administration team recruitment would begin for the post of Principal Administration Manager; two trainees had recently been awarded BSc Honour Degrees in Construction and Built Environment (Real Estate Surveying) and were now undertaking the structured training to allow them to sit the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence, the final stage in becoming a Chartered Surveyor.

In relation to property, the report noted that the move from the Robertson Centre to Renfrewshire House took place during April/May and that the adaptation works required to the new office had still to take place.

In relation to Council Tax, the report noted that the Scottish Government and CoSLA had launched a joint consultation into the future of Council Tax to gather views on potential approaches to reform. The Assessor, through the Scottish Assessors’ Association (SAA) had engaged with the joint working group and it was noted that the SAA would submit a response to the consultation on behalf of all Assessors. It was noted that this response would be published on the SAA website and be publicly available.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

DECIDED: That it be noted that the next meeting of the Joint Board would be held at 11.00 am on 20 February 2026 in the offices of Renfrewshire Council.