General Rate Act 1967
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1967 c. 9 |
General Rate Act 1967
1967 CHAPTER 9
An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to rating and valuation in England and Wales.
[22nd March 1967]
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
The General Rate
1 Rating areas and rating authorities.
(1) Subject to section 118(1) of this Act, the rating areas and the respective rating authorities therefor for the purposes of this Act shall be as follows—
| rating area | rating authority |
| each borough | the borough council |
| each urban or rural district | the district council |
| the City of London | the Common Council |
| the Inner Temple | the Sub-Treasurer |
| the Middle Temple | the Under-Treasurer. |
(2) Every rating authority shall have power in accordance with this Act to make and levy rates on the basis of an assessment in respect of the yearly value of property in their rating area for the purpose of applying the proceeds thereof to local purposes of a public nature.
(3) No authority or person other than the rating authority shall have power to make or levy within any rating area any such rates as are mentioned in subsection (2) of this section for the purpose so mentioned other than excepted rates.
(4) All powers and duties in relation to the making, levying and collection of such rates as are mentioned in subsection (2) of this section for the purpose so mentioned which are not excepted rates and which, but for this section, would in any rating area fall by virtue of any local Act to be exercised and performed by any person other than the rating authority shall be exercised and performed by that authority.
2 The general rate.
(1) Every rating authority shall from time to time in exercise of their powers under section 1(2) of this Act make such rates as will be sufficient to provide for such part of the total estimated expenditure to be incurred by the authority during the period in respect of which the rate is made as is not to be met by other means or by means of excepted rates, including in that expenditure any sums payable to any other authority under precepts issued by that other authority, together with such additional amount as is in the opinion of the rating authority required to cover expenditure previously incurred, or to meet contingencies, or to defray any expenditure which may fall to be defrayed before the date on which the moneys to be received in respect of the next subsequent rate made under this subsection will become available.
(2) Where a rural district council apprehend that a precept will be issued to the council to meet expenses of the council of a borough included in the rural district or of a parish council or parish meeting, being expenses which will be required to be defrayed out of the proceeds of a rate for any rate period, but at the time when the rural district council propose to make a rate the precept has not been issued, the council may estimate for what amount the precept will be issued and make the rate by reference to the estimate, and shall in a subsequent rate period make any necessary adjustment by increasing or decreasing, as the case may require, the amount to be levied in the borough or parish as an additional item of the rate.
(3) Any rate made by a rating authority under subsection (1) of this section shall be made and levied as a single consolidated rate for the whole of their rating area which shall be termed ‘the general rate’ and be in lieu of any other rates such as are mentioned in section 1(2) of this Act which that authority have power to make other than excepted rates.
(4) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the general rate for any rating area—
(a ) shall be a rate at a uniform amount per pound on the rateable value of each hereditament in that area, except that where any amount is, by virtue of any precept or otherwise, chargeable separately on part only of a rating area, the rating authority shall levy that amount on that part of the area together with, and as an additional item of, the general rate;
(b ) shall be made and levied in accordance with the valuation list in force for the time being, except that, where a new valuation list is to come into force for that area, a rate for the year, or any part of the year, beginning with the day on which the new list is to come into force shall be made, and applied in relation to particular hereditaments, by reference to that new list.
(5) Subsections (3) and (4)(a ) of this section shall not apply to the City of London and subsections (1), (3) and (4)(a ) of this section shall not apply to the Temples; but, subject to any express provision to the contrary effect, any other provision of this Act with respect to the general rate shall—
(a ) in its application to the City of London, apply also in relation to the poor rate, and
(b ) in its application to the Temples, apply in relation to any rate in the nature of a general rate levied in the Inner Temple or the Middle Temple, as the case may be,
as it applies in relation to the general rate.
3 Making of rate.
(1) Every rate made by a rating authority shall be deemed to be made on the date on which it is approved by the authority.
(2) For the purposes of the foregoing subsection, a resolution of a rating authority as respects the making of a rate shall be taken to constitute approval of the rate if the resolution specifies the amount per pound of rateable value at which the rate is to be levied, notwithstanding that the resolution—
(a ) is made without reference to individual hereditaments; or
(b ) does not take account of any privilege in respect of rating conferred on the occupiers of hereditaments in any particular part of the rating area, or on the occupiers of any particular hereditaments; or
(c ) does not take account of any amount leviable in part only of the rating area together with, and as an additional item of, the rate.
(3) Subject to subsection (5) of this section, every rate shall be made in respect of a period beginning immediately after the expiration of the last preceding rate period and ending on such date, to be specified in the rate, as may be fixed by the rating authority; and, in the case of the last rate made in respect of any year, the date so fixed shall be the last day of that year.
(4) Where a rate is made for a period exceeding three months, the rating authority may declare that the rate shall be paid by instalments at specified times.
(5) The rating authority may at any time make a supplementary rate if they think it necessary so to do having regard to the requirements of their area or to any precept.
(6) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to the City of London.
4 Publication of rate.
(1) Notice of every rate made shall be given by the rating authority within seven days after it is made, and the rate shall not be valid unless that notice is duly given in accordance with subsection (2) of this section.
(2) Such notice as aforesaid may be given by such of the following methods as the rating authority think fit, that is to say, by affixing the notice at any time within the said period of seven days on or near to the doors of churches and chapels in manner prescribed by section 2 of the Parish Notices Act 1837 , or by affixing the notice within the said period in some public or conspicuous place or situation in each rating district affected, or by publishing the notice within the said period in one or more newspapers circulating in the area of the authority; and different methods of publication may be used as respects different parts of the area of the authority.
(3) This section shall not apply to the City of London.
5 Demand note for rate.
(1) Information with respect to the following matters shall be included in the demand note on which the rate is levied, that is to say—
(a ) the situation of the hereditament in respect of which the demand note is issued and such description thereof reasonably necessary for purposes of identification as may be prescribed;
(b ) the rateable value and, where it differs from the rateable value, also the net annual value of the hereditament;
(c ) the amount in the pound at which the rate is charged;
(d ) the period in respect of which the rate is made;
(e ) the amounts in the pound which are being levied for the purposes respectively of the rating authority and of each authority by whom a precept has been issued to the rating authority or by whom the rating authority (where that authority are a rural district council) apprehend that a precept will be so issued;
(f ) the amount, if any, in the pound which is being levied as an additional item of the rate;
(g ) the amounts in the pound which are being levied for such of the principal services administered respectively by the rating authority and the precepting authorities aforesaid as may be prescribed.
(2) This section shall not apply to the City of London.
6 Amendment of rate.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the rating authority may at any time make such amendments in a rate (being either the current or the last preceding rate) as appear to them necessary in order to make the rate conform with the enactments relating thereto, and in particular may—
(a ) correct any clerical or arithmetical error in the rate; or
(b ) correct any erroneous insertions or omissions or any misdescriptions; or
(c ) make such additions to or corrections in the...
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