Alan Murdie
Alan Murdie is a specialist in council tax, housing and debt law issues dating back to 1989, including many test cases in the lower and higher courts. He is director of Council Tax Legal Services and Nucleus Legal Advice in Earl's Court, London. He has been involved with the Council Tax since its inception in 1992, editing eight editions of the Council Tax Handbook since 1998 and co-author of The Enforcement of Local Taxation (2001) with Ian Wise QC. He was a co-founder of the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust in 1996 and its senior lawyer between 2007-2013 and worked with the Ministry of Justice and Welfare Bill Committees in Parliament on law reforms. He taught intellectual property at the University of West London 1995-1998 and provides advice and training services to a wide range of public sector bodies, companies and charitable organisations.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 1988
Membership
- Bar of England and Wales
Education
- Law Degree LL.B (Hons) - De Monfort University
- Bar Finals Exam ' Inns of Court School of Law
6 Contributions by Alan Murdie
PRACTICE NOTES
ALMOs: legal framework, governance and management agreements, HA 1985 s 27 consents, tenant rights, TUPE, Teckal procurement and TMO interfaces
Arms length management organisations (ALMOs)
This Practice Note sets out the role of ALMOs in the sphere of local authority social housing provision. Although they can look like registered providers (RPs), they are in fact wholly owned by their respective local housing authorities (LHAs), created to manage services on the authority’s behalf. The Note considers a range of issues, including:
Tenant involvement in the organisational structure
Transfers of staff to ALMOs under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006), SI 2006/246
The preservation of all tenants’ statutory rights, as the landlord function remains with the local authority
How ALMOs relate to tenant management organisations (TMOs)
The constitutional make-up of ALMOs
An ALMO is a not-for-profit company delivering housing services for an LHA. Commonly, an LHA establishes an ALMO to manage and improve all or part of its stock, while retaining strategic decision-making powers. Ownership of the housing stock ordinarily stays with the LHA. ALMOs have been an established element of the social housing landscape since their inception in 2002. There are 33 across England, though there was once double that total; they are responsible for almost half a million properties...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Business rates (NNDR) in England and Wales: valuation, liability and appeals, with 2023 Act reforms and forthcoming 2026–29 procedural changes
Practice Note
This Practice Note introduces the national non-domestic rates (NNDR), commonly known as business rates, that apply to non-domestic premises in England and Wales. It summarises the scheme’s background and sets out how valuations are carried out. It also describes how to review entries and, where appropriate, challenge a local list or lodge an appeal against determinations already made. Property rating has existed in one form or another since 1601. The present framework was principally created by the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (LGFA 1988), and has since been amended...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Business rates (NNDR): legislative framework for billing, recovery, collection fund, transitional arrangements, exemptions, reliefs and multipliers, with reforms under NDRA 2023 and NDR(MPS)A 2025
National non-domestic rates (NNDR)
This Practice Note sits within a broader series on NNDR. It sets out the legislative framework for billing and recovery, explains the collection fund, and outlines transitional reliefs and exemptions operating within the system, addressing periods both before and after the pandemic. For more on other facets of the NNDR scheme, see the following Practice Notes:
National non-domestic rates—valuation and appeals
National non-domestic rates—business improvement district, business rate supplements and retention
Liability for business rates
Currently, local authorities collectively keep half of business rates income. The remainder is paid to central government, which then uses it to fund grants for local authorities. For the 2023–24 financial year, authorities project non-domestic rating income of £25.1bn—representing what they expect to collect after allowing for all reliefs, accounting adjustments and amounts retained outside the rates retention scheme. They also estimate awarding £7bn in business rates relief during 2023–24...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Council tax enforcement in England and Wales: statutory procedures from billing and summons to liability orders, enforcement options, challenges and committal
Practice Note
This Practice Note summarises the statutory framework for enforcing council tax liabilities. It explains the legal steps for demanding unpaid sums, the issue of a summons requiring a debtor to attend the magistrates’ court, and enforcement tools including attachment of earnings, securing a charge over property and, in the most exceptional circumstances, committal to prison.
Council tax became the principal means for local authorities in England to collect income from residents on 1 April 1993. While the legislation also applies in Wales, the administration of council tax there is the responsibility of the Welsh government. Council tax replaced the community charge (widely known as the ‘poll tax’), which had itself replaced domestic rating in April 1990. See Practice Note: Council tax.
The council tax enforcement regime is prescribed by regulations issued by the Secretary of State under the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (LGFA 1992), using the powers in Schedule 4 and following the model previously used for the community charge. These regulations set out a range of enforcement measures available where a taxpayer fails to pay some or all...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Identifying the ratepayer and the hereditament: liability for non-domestic rates, rateable occupation and the staircase tax (England and Wales)
This Practice Note explains liability for business rates, the three categories of taxpayer recognised by the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (LGFA 1988) (occupiers, owners and persons named in central rating lists), and outlines the meaning of ‘hereditament’, rateable occupation and matters concerning tenant fit-out works...
LGFA 1988 sets out three kinds of ratepayer:
occupiers
owners
persons named in central rating lists
Occupiers
An occupier is anyone who, on any day in a chargeable financial year (a 12-month period beginning on 1 April), occupies all or part of a hereditament that appears for that day in the current local non-domestic rating list...
Owners
An owner is the person with the right to possess the hereditament. They are liable to be rated where:
the hereditament is empty
they are entitled to the whole hereditament shown for the day in the current local non-domestic rating list
the hereditament falls within a class prescribed by the Secretary of State or, in Wales, the national authority, by regulations
If the premises are let, the tenant will ordinarily hold the right to possession. Plainly, any lease must be a genuine arrangement-a sham for the...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Legal framework and practice for business rates: BIDs, business rate supplements, rates retention, designated areas, safety nets, levies and reforms
This Practice Note forms part of a wider set addressing National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR). It looks at business improvement districts (BIDs), outlining their purpose, what they are, and the processes for their creation and funding. It also considers business rates supplements and the retention of NNDR by local authorities.
What are business improvement districts?
Section 41 of the Local Government Act 2003 (LGA 2003) introduces the statutory framework for BIDs. Under it, a billing authority may impose an additional levy on ratepayers within a BID area to finance projects that deliver extra services or further enhancements for the benefit of the local community (defined broadly as ‘those who live, work or carry’ on any activity in the district). Two or more billing authorities can agree to establish BIDs that span their borders, known as joint arrangements. Bodies running BID schemes are classed as a ‘relevant body’ for the purposes of the Localism Act 2011. BID schemes that were in place during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could be extended; however, nothing restricted the termination or modification of BID arrangements in line with regulations made under LGA 2003, s 54(4)...
Local Government
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