Statement issued on 2024 parish rates

Vale Parish Rates 2024

The Vale Parish has been contacted by the Guernsey Press asking whether the 2024 rates have been properly applied following on from being contacted by a small number of parishioners.

As a result, a comprehensive review has been undertaken of the rate process. This shows that the amount raised and the way it was levied is in accord with the decisions taken by a Vale Parish Meeting on March 20th and subsequently ratified by the Royal Court on 5^th April 2024.

The details of the rate, and how it was to be applied, were published by the Parish on March 6th and 16th which set out what the parish needed to raise in 2024 and the method by which it was to be collected through refuse and owners’ rates. The Constable offered to read out the individual property and land categories and the so-called factor values to be applied to each of them, but this offer was declined by the meeting, which went on to approve the rates, with no objections, and authorise the Constables to apply to the Royal Court for a Remède to levy the sums identified and required by the parish.

This was further approved by the Royal Court, unopposed, and the rates bills subsequently issued put this into effect and in the manner approved by the parish.

What seems to have triggered the Guernsey Press inquiry is that some properties which last year paid owners’ rate have this year been exempted. That is as a result of the States approving changes to Tax on Real Property (TRP), which introduced four new property bandings.

Under the Remède approved by the parish meeting, these retain a zero factor value in 2024. All categories will be reviewed again before next years remède is set and parochial rates issued.

In the meantime, the Constables can assure Vale parishioners that the parochial rate demands they have received for 2024 are exactly in accordance with the approvals obtained at the March 20th Parish Meeting and subsequently ratified by the Royal Court on April 5th.