Council Tax Officials Pocket Perks worth Thousands

Published by: Mail OnLine

Two senior officials responsible for imposing the Government's controversial new 'patio tax' have spent tens of thousands of pounds of public funds travelling to exotic locations to find new ways of raising rates in Britain.

Officials from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), the organisation which values properties for the purpose of council tax, clocked up the five-figure bill attending conferences in Europe, Australasia, North America and Africa in order to swap tips with foreign counterparts on Big Brother-style databases and 'spy-in-the-sky' satellite surveillance systems.

The pair frequently flew business-class, stayed in luxury hotels and were treated to a round of gala dinners, leaving British taxpayers to shoulder all the costs not met by conference organisers. 

High life: The £190-a-night Sheraton Hotel in South Africa, where Valuation Office Agency (VOA) officials stayed

Director of Data Strategy Paul Sanderson, who earns £90,000 a year and has a pension pot worth £828,000, and Professor David Tretton, VOA Rating Director, who earns a similar sum, have been identified as making the most trips.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed the details of a VOA-inspired stealth tax of up to £600 for householders with scenic views, patios, conservatories and garages.

Topics discussed during the international meetings included Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA), the technology used in the sinister new council revaluation database.

Flashing the cash: The Sheraton Hotel has 'sweeping views, marble floors and custom-designed furnishings'

Last November, one member of VOA staff spent £1,075 on a trip to Cannes to attend a four-day symposium which included a seminar about the internet entitled 'Bring Facebook, Wikipedia and Del.icio.us in-house: Why consumer software is better than what you are paying for'. The VOA refused to name the staff member.

Meanwhile, in March, Mr Sanderson spent £2,648 of public funds on a trip to Pretoria in South Africa, attending a two-day conference organised by the International Property Tax Institute.

He gave a 20-minute speech at the event, on 'practical problems in the valuation of non-residential properties', and also chaired a 70-minute workshop.

The official hotel where speakers were advised to stay was the Sheraton Hotel. It is described as having 'sweeping views that command all of Pretoria, exquisite marble flooring, and custom-designed furnishings.' Room prices begin at 2,500 rand a night - approximately £190.

Other cities which VOA staff visited for similar events during the last financial year include Toronto, Dublin, Warsaw, Kansas City and Moscow. 

In October, Prof Tretton spent £5,137 on trips to Wellington and Adelaide, where he made two speeches. During the Adelaide visit, he attended a gala dinner for 200 at the National Wine Centre. During that same month, Mr Sanderson spent £3,718 attending an International Property Tax Institute conference in Beijing. 

He is understood to have made at least one further trip, to New York in February, although a VOA spokesman refused to confirm this. 

Suggesting that even he may be bored by the subject of tax, Mr Sanderson gave his speech with the same title - 'Practical problems in the valuation of non-residential properties' - at least twice during his international tour: at the International Property Tax Institute conference in Ottawa in May 2008 and again in Pretoria in March.

During the last financial year, the VOA spent £5.4million on travel and subsistence, up £500,000 from two years ago. In a sign that its globetrotting activities have increased, the agency recently offset 199 tons of carbon, equivalent to 475,000 air miles.

So now we all understand why we MUST pay our Rip-Off Council Tax