The issue
8.The nub of the dispute concerns demand, and how that affects value. The appellant says that the effect of both Weavers Wharf and general market decline has been such that there is little if any demand from mainstream retailers for large town centre retail properties. It maintains that, properly analysed, the lease of the appeal building and that of the small number of comparable transactions, show that rental values are purely nominal. The valuation officer, on the other hand, says that the lease of the appeal building is sufficiently different from the statutory rating hypothesis to render any analysis meaningless, but there is sufficient evidence of positive rents from the comparable transactions to apply a positive rateable value to the appeal property.