[2025] UKUT 00343 (LC)

A description of the subject hereditaments, together with background to the VOA’s schemes of value, is provided in paragraphs 20 – 24 of Mr Royle’s report as follows:

“20.

The 21 subject hereditaments are advertising rights each exercised by employingtwo ‘back-to-back’, ‘small format’ advertising signs or displays. The display signsare of a standard size and type adopted extensively in the UK, commonlyreferred to as ‘6-sheets’. These are displayed in roadside locations, from busshelters and in all 21 instances the double-sided panels are situated at one endof the shelter, back-to-back, and orientated at 90 degrees to the traffic flow. Thedimensions of a 6-sheet are 1.8m x 1.2m, and all 21 hereditaments displayed in a‘portrait’ orientation.

21.

The description of these small format signs as ‘6-sheets’ harks back to thehistoric manner advertising displays were pasted together to form one largerpicture. The expression remains in common usage, despite ‘static’ advertisingdisplays today being formed using a single sheet of paper (or fabric), with some‘6-sheet’ ‘small format’ types having multiple display paraphernalia, notablyscrolling, electronic and digital display formats.

22.

Most ‘paper and paste’ or ‘static’ 6-sheet display signs are ‘backlit’, which meansthere is a light source (normally fluorescent bulbs) behind the sheet or scroller ina ‘light-box’. ‘Digital’ or ‘electronic’ displays have an integral light source, thetechnology being like a TV or computer screen.

23.

To assist valuation officers and ratepayers over the years, 'schemes of value' have been produced for small format display signs. These are normally focussed around two years prior to upcoming revaluations and typically preceded by invitations to the main advertising companies for ‘central discussions’. The resultant schemes are made available as ‘Revaluation Practice Notes’ in the VOA’s Rating Manual.

24.

Following the outcomes of central discussions in 2017 rating lists, guidance wasprovided to Valuation Officers for small format advertising displays, includingthose found at bus shelters.”

The VOA’s 2017 scheme of value was used to value the hereditaments in this appeal, applying a multiplier of six to the basic and unchallenged value for a static display at the AVD of 1 April 2015. The ratepayer argued on appeal to the VTE that the signs should be valued as if they were static displays, with no multiplier for digital use because the digital mechanisms were not rateable, as had been accepted in two previous VTE decisions.

The VTE determined that a digital advertising right would have clear and distinct advantages and be more valuable than that of a static one. It also determined that it was suitable to use the VOA’s static bus shelter roadside displays scheme as a base rate for the hereditaments. But it found that the VO’s logic in applying a multiplier of six to the base rates was flawed and determined a multiplier of three to be fair and reasonable.