This suggests that planners might be able to make genuine savings on survey work by obtaining council tax amendments data. However, the pilots also show that there are problems in making use of this data, since there is no systematic differentiation on records between new build and additions due to redevelopment, between demolitions and other losses due to redevelopment, or between permanent dwellings, houseboats and mobile homes. Planners were interested in obtaining robust statistics about the change in the dwelling stock and were keen to improve their systems and procedures accordingly. Officers responsible for building control and Council Tax had other priorities and little interest in statistics on the dwelling stock. In the pilots, co-operation over obtaining Council Tax register amendments data was difficult to obtain.
Improvements therefore require a commitment from a high level within each authority.
There are two sources outside the local authority which can contribute. The first is the building control information from the NHBC mentioned above. The second is information from the Post Office who maintain a database of addresses nation-wide. This information could help local authorities identify where changes were registered by the Post Office which may relate to conversions, changes of use or even demolitions, of which they might otherwise not be aware. The same would apply to information from any other Approved Inspector.