Businesses, leading rating practitioners and the Rating Surveyors Association (RSA) are mounting a vociferous campaign against the Valuation Office Agency’s (VOA) Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) portal, a new system introduced in England for businesses to contest their business rates assessments.

They collectively contest that the new system is failing businesses and the VOA website portal through which challenges have to be made is not fit for purpose. It is being condemned as ‘hugely inefficient’ and judged ‘impenetrable and ...

One of the finest and most modern marinas in North Wales is being offered for sale by The Crown Estate. Deganwy Marina on the beautiful Conwy Estuary is fully equipped with pontoons, boat stands, yacht cradles and a travel hoist, and an automatic tidal gate. 

Originally developed in 2004, the marina is an important part of the leisure and tourism industry in North Wales and is currently operated by Quay Marinas Limited which has attained a 5 Gold Anchors award from The Yacht Harbour Association.

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has recently published its decision in the case of Hughes (VO) V York Museum and Gallery Trust.

The case related to the rating assessments of historic, listed buildings in York occupied and run by York Museum and Gallery Trust (YMT) and its wholly owned subsidiary York Museums and Enterprises Ltd (YME).  The buildings were the Castle Museum, Yorkshire Museum - which includes the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, York Art Gallery and former St Mary’s Church, known as the Heritage Centre.

Wales’s first new tax in 800 years, the Land Transaction Tax (LTT) and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act will come into force on 1st April 2018.  It will replace Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), which will cease to apply in April 2018, and while LTT will be similar to SDLT there will be some differences.

The Welsh Government has set up a new government body, the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA), to manage taxes in Wales. Its key roles will be to collect the tax on transactions of land in Wales, prevention of tax avoidance, and maintaining tax revenue. Prevention of tax avoidance is being viewed as a major priority. Andrew Evans, Partner and experienced tax lawyer at Geldards Law Firm, who gave a lunchtime presentation to Cooke & Arkwright ...

With such diversity in scenery and terrain, Wales has always been a popular venue for the film and television industry, but demand has increased significantly over the past decade. 

As a result, Cooke & Arkwright’s Land Agency team regularly receive requests from production companies seeking suitable locations to film at.

George Watts has been a surveyor with Cooke & Arkwright’s Building Consultancy for almost three years. He passed his Assessment of Professional Competence in June, becoming a Chartered Building Surveyor and a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Here he explains the challenge of gaining the APC.

I am extremely proud to have passed my APC and to have become a member of the RICS after three years at university and nearly three years of concentrated study and work at Cooke & Arkwright.

A Cardiff-based Scout group that faced losing its home will now be able to stay put after raising enough money to buy the site it has occupied for 40 years.

The Second Llandaff Scout Group, which meets in a hut in the grounds of the former Christchurch Methodist/URC Church in Llandaff North was thrown into difficulty after the church closed in 2015 and the whole property had to be put up for sale through agents Cooke & Arkwright.