Housing Finance (Special Provisions) Act 1975
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1975 c. 67 |
| Year | 1975 |
Housing Finance(Special Provisions) Act 1975
1975 CHAPTER 67
An Act to prevent surcharges under the Local Government Act 1933 arising out of the Housing Finance Act 1972; to substitute other means of making good losses or deficiencies in respect of which such surcharges would fall to be made; and for connected purposes.
[12th November 1975]
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:
General
1 Surcharges arising out of Housing Finance Act 1972.
(1) Where at an audit of a council's accounts the district auditor is satisfied that they show an item of account, or a loss or deficiency, attributable to the council's failure to implement the Housing Finance Act 1972 , and that he would be under a duty to make a disallowance or surcharge in respect of it, he shall neither disallow it nor make a surcharge in respect of it.
(2) Where subsection (1) above applies, the district auditor shall certify the sum which and the persons whom he would have surcharged in respect of any loss of rent attributable to the failure.
(3) In any case where a district auditor has made a disallowance or surcharge before the passing of this Act but on or after 7th March 1975, and subsection (1) above would have prevented the disallowance or surcharge if this Act had been passed before the date on which it was made, the disallowance or surcharge shall be treated as not having been made; and where in any such case there is a loss of rent to which subsection (2) above would have applied, the district auditor shall certify the sum which and the persons whom he surcharged in respect of it.
(4) In this Act ‘rent loss certificate’ means a certificate issued under subsection (2) or (3) above.
(5) In any case where subsection (3) above applies, any right of appeal against the disallowance or surcharge and any decision on such an appeal shall abate, but without prejudice to the right of appeal conferred by subsection (6) below.
(6) In the Local Government Act 1933—
section 226(2) (auditor's duty to give reasons for decisions);
section 229 (appeals against decisions); and
section 234 (expenses of auditors),
shall apply in relation to a rent loss certificate as they apply in relation to a surcharge, but with the omission from section 229(2) of the words from ‘and if’ to the end of the subsection.
(7) A rent loss certificate shall become effective upon the date (in this Act referred to as ‘the effective date’) upon which there expires the ordinary period allowed under section 229 of the Local Government Act 1933 for making an appeal against a surcharge, or, if an appeal is made under that section, as applied by subsection (6) above, upon the date on which the appeal is finally disposed of or abandoned or fails by reason of non-prosecution.
2 Recovery of certified amounts.
(1) Subject to subsection (5) below, a council who on 1st April 1974 held any dwellings to which a rent loss certificate relates shall recover, except as permitted by a direction under subsection (4) below, the certified sum or, where more than one council held such dwellings on that date, an appropriate part of it (as certified by the district auditor) by the end of the recovery period and at the appropriate rate.
(2) In subsection (1) above—
‘the appropriate rate’ means a rate of not less than one-fifth of the sum which it falls to the council to recover by the end of each year of the recovery period, except that, if the effective date of the rent loss certificate falls in February or March, the council shall not be obliged to recover one-fifth by the end of the first year; and
‘the recovery period’ means a period of five years commencing on the 1st April following the effective date of the certificate.
(3) A council shall perform their duty under this section either by a general increase of the rents of those of their Housing Revenue Account dwellings in the part or parts of their area to which the certificate relates or by a general increase of the rents of their Housing Revenue Account dwellings in the whole of their area; and a council may make any such increase notwithstanding section 111 of the Housing Act 1957 (charges for local authority's houses).
(4) The Secretary of State may direct, upon the application of a council, that the period during which recovery is to be completed shall in their case be such longer period as may be specified in the direction, and may give a consequential direction about the rate at which they are to recover.
(5) If the Secretary of State...
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