Transitional Relief
At each revaluation, the government in England is required to make regulations introducing transitional arrangements12. In making the regulations the Secretary of State must have regard to the object of securing that they are revenue neutral13. At previous revaluations the government has met this requirement by providing transitional relief for those facing increases in bills but has funded this by capping reductions in bills for those benefitting from the revaluation – known as "downward caps". The Chancellor announced at the Autumn Statement 202214 that for the 2023 revaluation, transitional relief would be funded by the Exchequer and that downward caps will no longer be used. The Act facilitates the delivery of this commitment.
	The transitional relief regulations must come into force before 1 January in the revaluation year15. In order to support more frequent revaluations and provide more time for parliamentary scrutiny of the regulations in draft, the government announced that the deadline for passing these regulations will be moved back one month to 1 February16. The Act makes this change. This will not affect local authorities’ and ratepayers’ ability to plan for these regulations as the government will continue to announce future transitional arrangements in line with the normal Budget process.