Local Government Act 1948



Local Government Act, 1948

(11 & 12 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 26.

An Act to amend the law relating to Exchequer grants to local authorities and other bodies and grants by local authorities to other local authorities or other bodies, and the law relating to rating, valuation for rating and precepts to rating authorities; to provide for payments for the benefit of local authorities by the British Transport Commission, the British Electricity Authority and the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board; to amend the Railway Freight Rebates Enactments, 1929 to 1943, section two hundred and eleven of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947, the law relating to the payment of expenses and other allowances to members of local authorities and other bodies and the law relating to the manner in which certain securities of local authorities and other bodies may be transferred; to extend the powers of local authorities in certain respects; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[24th March 1948]

Be it enacted by the King'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:—

I Exchequer Grants and other Financial Provisions (England and Wales) .

Part I.

Exchequer Grants and other FinancialProvisions (England and Wales) .

Discontinued grants.

Discontinued grants.

S-1 Termination of certain Exchequer grants, and of third fixed grant period.

1 Termination of certain Exchequer grants, and of third fixed grant period.

1. Save as otherwise provided by this Part of this Act—

a ) no Exchequer grant shall be payable under the Local Government Acts, 1929 to 1946, for the year 1948-49 or any subsequent year; and
b ) the third fixed grant period shall for the purposes of all enactments be terminated at the end of March, nineteen hundred and forty-eight
Exchequer Grants to Counties and County Boroughs.

Exchequer Grants to Counties and County Boroughs.

S-2 Exchequer Equalisation Grants to counties and county boroughs.

2 Exchequer Equalisation Grants to counties and county boroughs.

(1) Where for the year 1948-49 or any subsequent year the rateable value for a county or county borough is less than the standard rateable value for that county or county borough (as defined by the subsequent provisions of this Part of this Act), there shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to the council of the county or county borough a grant equal to the relevant fraction (as so defined) of the amount of the difference.

(2) The said difference is in the subsequent provisions of this Part of this Act referred to as the rateable value credited to the county or county borough.

(3) Grants under this section are in the subsequent provisions of this Part of this Act referred to as ‘Exchequer Equalisation Grants.’

S-3 Meaning of ‘standard rateable value’.

3 Meaning of ‘standard rateable value’.

(1) The standard rateable value for a county or county borough for the purposes of the preceding provisions of this Part of this Act is the amount which bears to the weighted population of that county or county borough for the year in question the same proportion as the sum which is to be taken for the purposes of this subsection as the rateable value for England and Wales for that year bears to the aggregate of the weighted populations of all the counties and county boroughs in England and Wales for that year.

(2) In this section, the expression ‘the weighted population’ in relation to a county or county borough means the population thereof plus the number of children under fifteen years of age therein and, in the case of a county the population whereof divided by the road-mileage thereof is less than seventy, plus also one-third of the additional population needed in order that the population thereof divided by the road-mileage thereof should be seventy.

(3) The sum which is to be taken for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section as the rateable value for England and Wales for any year is the rateable value for England and Wales for that year, increased, in the case of any year subsequent to the year 1948-49, to such extent, if any, as the Minister may direct in relation to that subsequent year.

(4) The power conferred on the Minister by the last preceding subsection to direct such increases as are therein referred to shall, as respects any year, be used for the purpose and only for the purpose of securing that the proportion which the aggregate of the rateable values credited to all the counties and county boroughs in England and Wales bears to the rateable value for England and Wales shall be as nearly as may be the same for that year as for the year 1948-49; but the Minister shall not use the said power as respects any year unless the effect of the use thereof would be to increase the aggregate of the rateable values credited to all counties and county boroughs in England and Wales for that year by at least one per cent.

S-4 Meaning of ‘the relevant fraction’.

4 Meaning of ‘the relevant fraction’.

(1) The relevant fraction for a county or county borough for the purposes of the preceding provisions of this Part of this Act is the fraction arrived at by dividing the relevant local expenditure for the year in question by the sum of the following amounts, that is to say, the rateable value credited to the county or county borough for that year and the product of a rate of one pound in the pound for the county or county borough for that year.

(2) In this section, the expression ‘the relevant local expenditure’ means so much of the total expenditure for the year—

(a ) in the case of a county, of the council of the county and of the other local authorities in the county; and

(b ) in the case of a county borough, of the council of the county borough,

as would have to be met out of rates levied within the county or county borough if no Exchequer Grants under this Part of this Act and (so far as any such Grant is relevant to the year in question) no Exchequer Grants payable for any previous year under the Local Government Acts, 1929 to 1946, were payable, and if no grants had been made out of moneys provided by Parliament to local authorities by the Minister by way of special assistance in respect of their financial difficulties arising out of the war.

(3) Where, by virtue of a precept or other instrument, not being a precept or instrument issued by a county council, any sum falls to be paid by a local authority to any other authority, the amount payable shall be treated for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section as expenditure of the first-mentioned authority.

(4) The provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall, as respects the year 1948-49, have effect subject to the special provisions relating to Exchequer Grants for that year contained hereafter in this Part of this Act.

S-5 Exchequer Transitional Grants for first five years.

5 Exchequer Transitional Grants for first five years.

(1) The Minister shall estimate in relation to each county and county borough in England and Wales the sums specified in subsections (2) and (3) of this section, being, in every case, sums estimated for the year 1947-48.

(2) The Minister shall first estimate—

(a ) the aggregate of all Exchequer Grants payable under the Local Government Acts, 1929 to 1946, to the council of the county or county borough or, in the case of a county, to any other local authority in the county, less any contributions payable by the council of the county or county borough under section three of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1937 , section sixteen of the Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940 , or section three of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1946 ;

(b ) the aggregate of the grants payable to the local education authority for the county or county borough by virtue of regulations under section one hundred or section one hundred and one of the Education Act, 1944 , or, where a joint education board has been constituted for the county or county borough, of the proper proportion of any such grants payable to that board; and

(c ) the product of a rate of sixpence in the pound for the county or county borough.

(3) The Minister shall then estimate—

(a ) the aggregate of so much of the expenditure incurred by the council of the county or county borough or, in the case of a county, by any other local authority in the county, in—

(i)providing services which it will be the duty of the Minister to provide under Part II of the National Health Service Act, 1946; and

(ii) performing any functions falling to be discontinued by virtue of any Act of the present Session terminating the existing poor law,

as would have had to be met out of rates levied in the county or county borough if no Exchequer Grants under the Local Government Acts, 1929 to 1946, and no contributions under section three of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1937, section sixteen of the Old Age and Widows' Pensions Act, 1940, or section three of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1946, had been payable;

(b ) the sum which would have been the aggregate mentioned in paragraph (b ) of subsection...

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