The Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) is seeking clarification
from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) of the
business rate tax rules the VOA would impose on next-generation
networks. This will allow potential investors to work out their
risk and return on investment more accurately.
Anthony Walker, director of the BSG, said the group had
presented the VOA with a number of scenarios in which network
operators might supply high-speed network access. He said he hoped
for a response by mid-October.
The tax has been described Philip Virgo, spokesman for Eurim, a
parliamentary-industry
discussion group, as
the biggest stumbling block to the roll-out of competitive,
high-speed networks under the government's Digital Britain
policy.
The UK and Ireland are the only countries in Europe to levy a
tax on business properties.
Sources close to the VOA said the VOA would like to know
precisely what network operators were making from renting their
infrastructure to network resellers. This is because the VOA works
on the rentable value of business assets.
"This is commercially sensitive information, which network
operators don't want the VOA to know, especially because of its
failure to comply with even basic information security standards,"
said one.
Audit firm Deloitte reported recently that
the VOA failed to meet any of six government security rules for
protecting information and its exchange. The government
subsequently classified the report as restricted.