Local Government (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1963
| Year | 1963 |
Local Government (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1963
1963 CHAPTER 12
An Act to continue, with amendments, the provisions relating to the payment of Exchequer Equalisation and Transitional Grants to local authorities in Scotland; to increase the limit of contributions payable to such authorities under the Rural Water Supplies and Sewerage Act 1944; to alter the basis of apportionment among such authorities of certain sums (including the aggregate amount of the General Grants payable under the Local Government and Miscellaneous Financial Provisions (Scotland) Act 1958); and to amend the law of Scotland with respect to the valuation for rating of industrial and freight transport lands and heritages and to other matters relating to valuation, rating, and local authorities' financial administration; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[15th May 1963]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Exchequer grants and apportionment
1 Continuation of provisions relating to Exchequer Equalisation and Transitional Grants.
1. Notwithstanding anything in section 29 of the Act of 1956 the following provisions (being provisions relating to Exchequer Equalisation and Transitional Grants), that is to say—
so far as in force immediately before the commencement of this section, shall continue in force, subject to the provisions of this Act.
2 Condition for, and amount of, Exchequer Equalisation Grants.
(1) As respects the year 1963-64 and subsequent years the condition for the payment to a county council or the town council of a burgh of an Exchequer Equalisation Grant under the Act of 1954 for any year shall be that the product of a rate of one penny in the pound for the area of the council for that year is less than the standard penny rate product for the area for that year; and, subject to the next following section, the amount of the grant shall be the amount which bears to the relevant local expenditure for the area for that year the same proportion as the difference between the said products bears to the standard penny rate product.
(2) For the purposes of this section—
(a ) the area of a county council is the landward area of the county and the area of a town council of a burgh is the burgh; and
(b ) the expression ‘relevant local expenditure’ in relation to any area for any year means so much of the total expenditure for the year as would fall to be met out of moneys raised by rates levied in the area if no exchequer grants applicable towards meeting such expenditure were payable under the Act of 1954.
(3) Accordingly the Act of 1954 shall have effect as respects the year 1963-64 and subsequent years as if for section 3 thereof there were substituted the following section:—
‘3. Where for the year 1963-64 or any subsequent year the product of a rate of one penny in the pound as defined for the purposes of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1963 for the landward area of a county, for a large burgh or for a small burgh is less than the standard penny rate product, as so defined, for the landward area or burgh there shall be paid to the county council or, as the case may be, the town council an Exchequer Equalisation Grant of such amount as is provided by sections 2 and 3 of the said Act of 1963’.
3 Reduction of Exchequer Equalisation Grants in respect of low rent income.
(1) Where for the year 1963-64 or any subsequent year the actual rent income of a county council or town council is less than the council's notional rent income there shall (notwithstanding anything in section 1 of the Act of 1954 or section 26 of the Act of 1956) be deducted from any Exchequer Equalisation Grant which would, apart from this section, be payable to the council for that year under section 3 of the Act of 1954 an amount equal to the difference between—
(a ) the amount of the grant as calculated for the year in question under the said section 3, and
(b ) the amount which would result from that calculation if for the council's actual rent income for that year there were substituted their notional rent income for that year.
(2) Notwithstanding any reductions made in the Equalisation Grant payable to councils consequent on subsection (1) above the total Equalisation Grant disbursed to Scottish local authorities shall not fall below an amount ascertained in accordance with section 1(1)(b ) of the Act of 1954.
(3) In this section—
(a ) references to a council's actual rent income for any year are references to the income receivable for the year by the council and credited to their housing revenue account for the year under paragraph (a ) of section 138(1) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1950 in respect of the relevant subjects, together with any sums so credited under subsection (2) or (3) of the said section 138, but excluding any such income as aforesaid which by reason of the granting of any rent rebates is not actually received; and
(b ) references to a council's notional rent income for any year are references to such percentage of the aggregate of the gross annual values of the relevant subjects, as shown in the valuation roll for the year in question, as is specified in the second column of the following Table in relation to that year:
Provided that, if he is requested by any council to do so, the Secretary of State shall direct that, in relation to that council and in relation to such year as may be specified in the direction, this section shall have effect as if references therein to the council's notional rent income for that year were references to such percentage of the aggregate of the gross annual values of the relevant subjects, as shown in the valuation roll for the year in question, as is specified in the third column of the said Table in relation to that year, less an amount equal to the aggregate of any rent rebates granted in respect of those subjects by the council for that year in pursuance of any rent rebates scheme approved by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this section.
Table
| Year | Percentage first referred to above |
Percentage second referred to above |
| 1963-64 | 85 per cent. | 90 per cent. |
| 1964-65 | 90 per cent. | 95 per cent. |
| Any subsequent year | 95 per cent. | 100 per cent. |
(4) In the last foregoing subsection—
(a ) references to the relevant subjects, in relation to any council and in relation to any year, are references to any houses, buildings, land or dwellings let by the council and shown in the valuation roll for that year;
(b ) references to the aggregate of the gross annual values of the relevant subjects, in relation to any council, are references to that aggregate exclusive of such part of the gross annual value of any house or dwelling comprised in those subjects as may be certified by the assessor to be attributable to any garage provided otherwise than by the council;
(c ) the expression ‘rent rebates’ means rebates to which section 73(4) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1950 or section 29 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1962 refers;
(d ) the expression ‘rent rebates scheme’ includes any scheme for the granting of rent rebates (including so much of any rents scheme made under the said section 29 as relates to rent rebates); and
(e ) the expression ‘valuation roll’ does not include ‘supplementary valuation roll’.
(5) The Secretary of State may by order provide that the Table set out in subsection (3) of this section shall have effect as respects any year of revaluation specified in the order, and in relation to such local authority or local authorities as may be so specified, as if for the percentages specified for that year in the Table there were substituted such lower percentages as may be specified in the order.
(6) An order under the last foregoing subsection shall not have effect unless approved by a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament.
4 District councils' share of Exchequer Equalisation Grants.
4. The Act of 1954 shall have effect as respects the year 1963-64 and subsequent years as if for section 8 thereof there were substituted the following section:—
8.
(1) A county council shall, out of any Exchequer Equalisation Grant paid to them under the foregoing provisions of this Act for the year 1963-64 or any subsequent year, pay to the council of any district in the county an amount which bears to the amount of the Exchequer Equalisation Grant which was so paid (or, in a case to which section 3 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1963 applies, would have been so paid if no deductions under that section had been made) the same proportion as the expenditure of the district council for that year bears to the relevant local expenditure for the landward area of the county for that year.
(2) In this section—
‘district’ has the same meaning as in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947;
‘expenditure’ in relation to a district council for any year means so much of that council's expenditure...
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