Abstract
This study explores the potential of GIS to map and analyse the distribution, stock and value of commercial and industrial property using rating data compiled for the purposes of charging business rates taxation on all non-residential property in the UK. Rating data from 2010, 2017 and 2019, comprising over 6000 property units in the City of York, were filtered and classified by retail, office and industrial use, before geocoding by post code. Nominal rateable values and floor areas for all premises were aggregated in 100 m diameter hexagonal grid and average rateable value calculated to reveal changes in the distribution and value of all employment floorspace in the City over the last decade. Temporospatial analysis revealed polarisation of York’s retail property market between the historic city centre and out-of-town locations. Segmenting traditional retail from food and drink premises revealed growth in the latter has mitigated the hollowing out of the city core. This study is significant in developing a replicable and efficient method of using GIS, using a nationally available rating dataset, to represent changes in the quantum, spatial distribution and relative value of employment floorspace over time to inform local and national land administration, spatial planning and economic development policy making.
Highlights
One of the challenges for local government officers, surveyors, property managers and administrators is the generation of meaningful and timely information and analysis to inform strategic management of the public sector estate and strategic policy development across the wider built environment
The authors propose that rateable value’ (RV)/m2 can be used as a proxy for market attractiveness, since it provides a consistent measurement of the value of properties of different sizes in different locations
The study revealed that whilst retail and office agglomeration persisted in the city centre, consistent with classical commercial property location theory [20,22,23], there were significant clusters of commercial floorspace on the peri-urban fringe, at intersections between radial transport corridors and the city’s ring road
Summary
One of the challenges for local government officers, surveyors, property managers and administrators is the generation of meaningful and timely information and analysis to inform strategic management of the public sector estate and strategic policy development across the wider built environment. The research seeks to explore the potential to use the VOA’s dataset to create a methodology that can be used to portray, analyse and manage the non-domestic real estate at a local level, as the backdrop against which robust strategic decisions about capital investment and spatial interventions can be made Such analysis would potentially be of use to metropolitan and city mayors, chief executives of local authorities, public sector estate managers, spatial and transport planners, economic development officers, town and city centre managers and other functions that require comprehensive representation of changes in the stock and performance of all commercial and industrial within their jurisdiction, at a variety of spatial scales. What is the most effective way of visualising business rates data in GIS to analyse the quantum and spatial distribution of employment floorspace?
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