Ratepayers throughout the Island will be asked to help with Government research into the potential effects of changing the way that residential property is valued for domestic rating purposes.

Treasury is looking at shifting the basis of the rating system from historic rental values of properties to current capital values.

Rates demands to be issued by Treasury in early April will include a request for ratepayers to indicate which capital value band their property would be in if the system were changed.

A Treasury spokesman explained: ‘Property owners are not obliged to provide this information but we would encourage them to do so. A good level of returns will help to provide a clearer picture of how the proposed changes may affect future rate demands for individual properties across the Island.’

He added: ‘The return should be made by the property owner to the best of their knowledge, and there is no need to ask an expert or professional to carry out a valuation. Returns will only be used for research purposes and information about individual properties will not be published or passed on to third parties.’

At present bills for local authority, water and sewerage rates are calculated using an estimate of the rental income that a property would have earned in the 1960s, when the structure of the housing market was significantly different.

Treasury is investigating the implications of moving to a system based on current capital value – the price a home would fetch if sold on the open market – under which properties would be grouped into nine valuation bands.

It is believed that capital value would provide a more accurate and up to date basis for domestic rating, with fewer anomalies than the existing system.

Moving to capital valuation would mean some households paying less in rates than they are at present, and others more, but the change would not increase the overall amount of revenue raised.