UK Business Rates Valuation Watchdog

Look up the official rateable value of every business property in one or more UK postcodes, and get the full revaluation history — not just today's number, but every previous rateable value and effective date, with the change already calculated for you.

Where the data comes from

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA), an executive agency of HMRC, publishes the rateable value of every non-domestic (business) property in England and Wales through its free, public Find a business rates valuation service (www.tax.service.gov.uk/business-rates-find) — the same tool a business owner or ratepayer uses by hand to check or challenge their rates bill. This Actor drives that exact public GOV.UK form (search by postcode, then open each property's valuation page) using only the Python standard library — no login, no API key, no scraping tool that bypasses a paywall or ignores terms of use.

Rateable value is the figure local councils multiply by the business rates "multiplier" to calculate a property's rates bill, and it is revalued by VOA periodically (most recently 1 April 2023, with the next general revaluation effective 1 April 2026) — so a property's history of rateable values is a direct record of how its rates bill has moved over time.

Who this is for

• Commercial property investors and agents who want the rates history for every unit in a portfolio or a target building in one pass, instead of looking each one up by hand.
• Rating surveyors and rates-mitigation advisers scanning a client's estate for units where the rateable value jumped sharply at the last revaluation (a strong candidate for a formal Check/Challenge/Appeal).
• Retailers and hospitality operators budgeting for a store portfolio, comparing the rates burden across locations before signing a lease.
• Local journalists and researchers covering a high street's fortunes — e.g. a run of empty units alongside falling rateable values.

How to use it

1. Enter one or more postcodes (e.g. EC1A 1BB, or SW1A1AA — spacing is normalised automatically).
2. Optionally cap max properties per postcode — some postcodes (a shopping centre, a government building, a business park) cover dozens of separately-rated units.
3. Optionally add a watch label to tell several saved postcode lists apart when comparing runs or datasets.
4. Run it — every property found gets one row per valuation period: the current rateable value and every prior one, each with its effective date and the change (£ and %) versus the value immediately before it.
5. Schedule the Actor (e.g. monthly) against a fixed list of postcodes to catch a mid-cycle "interim" revaluation the moment VOA publishes it — these happen after a property is altered, split, merged, or a Check/ Challenge/Appeal is settled, not just at the scheduled 2023/2026-style general revaluations.

Output example

{
  "watch_label": "Whitehall portfolio",
  "postcode_searched": "SW1A 1AA",
  "status": "ok",
  "uarn": "14967702000",
  "address": "Admiralty Arch, The Mall, London,  SW1A 1AA",
  "description": "Site huts and premises",
  "valuation_period": null,
  "is_current": true,
  "effective_date": "1 April 2026",
  "rateable_value_gbp": 272500,
  "previous_rateable_value_gbp": 362500,
  "change_from_previous_gbp": -90000,
  "change_from_previous_pct": -24.83,
  "property_url": "https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/business-rates-find/valuations/start/14967702000",
  "fetched_at": "2026-09-28T05:09:20+00:00",
  "error": null
}

If a postcode is not a recognisable UK postcode, or VOA cannot be reached, a single row is returned with status set to invalid_input, http_error, network_error or parse_error and the reason in error — you are never charged for that row.

FAQ

Is this legal / does it breach any terms of use? Find a business rates valuation is the official public tool VOA/HMRC provide specifically so ratepayers and their agents can look up rateable values without contacting VOA directly. This Actor only submits the same postcode search and reads the same public results any visitor sees — no login, no paywall bypass, no private API.

Does it cover Scotland or Northern Ireland? No — VOA's remit is England and Wales. Scotland uses the Scottish Assessors' Portal and Northern Ireland uses Land & Property Services; both keep separate registers.

What does "Previous" vs a missing valuation_period mean? VOA's own page always shows the effective date and rateable value for each period; the descriptive period label (e.g. "1 April 2023 to 31 March 2026") is present on most properties but occasionally omitted by VOA itself — when that happens valuation_period is null while effective_date and rateable_value_gbp are still filled in.

Can I run this on a schedule? Yes — a fixed postcode list on a monthly Apify schedule gives you an early alert whenever VOA publishes a new valuation for any of your properties, without you polling the site by hand.

Related Actors

If you also need company-level context for who occupies these units, pair this with Companies House Watchlist or Corporate KYC Intelligence from the same developer.