Empty rate - Thursday 21 July 2011
27/06/2011
/
1045
The West Midlands Association held its best-attended meeting in years on 21 July this year when Gordon Heath, well-known expert on business rates, entertained the great and the good of the region’s rating community (and other interested parties) gathered in Brindleyplace in Birmingham, with tales from the dawn of rates to the present day.
When the invitations went out, we expected responses from the usual suspects – and a few extras drawn in by Executive Committee member (and Rating Surveyors’ Association President) Graham Ryall from his list of contacts. What we didn’t expect is to have 70 people in a room booked for 60!
Many times in the past we have held meetings on topics we consider to be of burning interest to our members and colleagues, only to be disappointed by the turnout. To get this number of people to spend a warm summer’s afternoon listening to a talk on business rates must be a testament to Gordon’s reputation within the rating community. That the meeting was free to attend (as are all our Association meetings) was no doubt an added bonus, but we’ve all heard stories of how Associations have held a free meeting which hardly anyone attends, then offered the same event at a price which is duly packed out!
The meeting room at Eleven Brindleyplace was provided free of charge by Colliers, and we are grateful to them for helping us keep our costs down and our events free to attend.
Events coming up in the West Midlands area. To add your details to our
mailing list and/or register your interest in any of our events, please e-mail
us at irrvwma@googlemail.com.
The second meeting of this year's programme was another well-received event, with Bob Trahern and Tim Savill sharing their knowledge and understanding of the impending changes with a group of around 20 members and colleagues.
The second meeting of this year's programme will shortly be upon us and the Association invites you to attend what should prove to be a very topical and interesting subject matter given the Government's impending changes to the benefits scheme.
The first Association meeting of the new programme saw Toby Holt of insolvency practitioners Smith & Williamson, and Andrew Hobley of the Local Government Ombudsman's office, talking about the work they do.
Paul Sanderson is addressing the Association in January on matters of current interest in the valuation field. The meeting will take place at Meetingspace, Eleven Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2LP between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Paul Sharpe of Equita talks to the Association from 4 p.m. on Wednesday 9 November 2011 at the Council House, Earl Street, Coventry on the topic of “what your bailiff can do for you”.
This event is brought to you jointly by the Association and
CIPFA in the Midlands (CIM), and takes place on Tuesday 11 October 2011
between 4.30 and 6.30 p.m. in Committee Rooms 2 and 3 of the Council
House, Earl Street, Coventry Street CV1 5RR.
This year's event took place at the Holiday Inn just off the M6 at Junction 7, near Birmingham. A good time was had by all!
We welcomed students to the 2011/12 Level 3 Certificate course, and handed out certificates to last year's successful candidates.
The IRRV West Midlands Association is once again offering this course from September to students in the West Midlands and beyond.
The Rating Surveyors Association (RSA) has appointed Graham Ryall, a Director in Colliers CRE's Birmingham Rating team, President for its next year of operation.
