Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act 1930
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1930 c. 24 |
Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930
(20 & 21 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 24.
An Act to amend the law relating to the valuation for rating purposes of hereditaments occupied by railway companies and for purposes connected therewith.
[10th July 1930]
B E 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:—
1 Procedure for valuing railway hereditaments in England.
(1) As from the appointed day the provisions of the Rating and Valuation Acts relating to the ascertainment of the values of hereditaments shall, save as expressly provided by this Act, cease to apply in the case of railway hereditaments in England occupied by a railway company to which this Act applies, and the values for rating purposes of all such hereditaments shall be the values thereof as ascertained in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) The railway companies to which this Act applies are the several amalgamated companies constituted under the Railways Act, 1921 , and the Metropolitan Railway Company, and any other railway company to which it is applied by a scheme submitted and approved in accordance with the provisions contained in the First Schedule to this Act.
(3) For the purposes of this Act—
‘Railway company’ means (except in the First Schedule to this Act) a railway company to which this Act for the time being applies;
‘Undertaking’ in relation to a railway company includes, in addition to the principal undertaking of the company—
(a ) any canal, dock or harbour undertaking carried on by the company;
(b ) any subsidiary or ancillary undertaking carried on by the company, not being a road-transport, sea-transport or air-transport undertaking; and
(c ) the share of the company in any joint undertaking carried on by, or on behalf of, two or more railway companies not being a road transport, sea transport or air transport undertaking;
but, save as aforesaid, does not include the share of the company in any joint undertaking;
‘Railway hereditament’ means, subject as hereinafter provided, any hereditament occupied for the purposes of the undertaking of a railway company:
Provided that no premises occupied as a dwelling-house, hotel or place of public refreshment, or so let out as to be capable of separate assessment, shall be deemed to be, or to form part of, a railway hereditament.
2 Constitution of Railway Assessment Authority and Anglo-Scottish Railways Assessment Authority.
(1) For the purposes of the valuation of railway hereditaments under this Act there shall be constituted—
(a ) a Railway Assessment Authority consisting of a chairman and nine other members; and
(b ) an Anglo-Scottish Railways Assessment Authority (in this Act referred to as ‘The Joint Authority’) consisting of a chairman and two other members.
(2) The chairman of the Railway Assessment Authority shall be an experienced lawyer to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and of the other members of the Authority three shall be appointed by the Minister at his discretion and one shall be appointed by him on the recommendation of each of the following bodies, that is to say, the London County Council, the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee, the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association.
(3) The chairman of the Railway Assessment Authority shall be the chairman of the Joint Authority, and of the other members of the Joint Authority one shall be appointed by the Railway Assessment Authority and the other shall be the Assessor of Railways and Canals for Scotland.
(4) The first members of the Railway Assessment Authority and the first representative of that Authority upon the Joint Authority shall be appointed as soon as may be after the passing of this Act and vacancies occurring thereafter shall be filled from time to time by the making of fresh appointments.
(5) If the chairman or any other member of the Railway Assessment Authority, or of the Joint Authority, is incapacitated by prolonged illness or other unavoidable cause from attending meetings of the Authority, a substitute may be appointed to act in his place whilst the incapacity continues—
(a ) if the member incapacitated is the Assessor of Railways and Canals, by the Secretary of State; and
(b ) in any other case, by the person or authority by whom the incapacitated member was appointed.
(6) The Railway Assessment Authority shall pay to the chairman of the Authority and to any substitute appointed to act in his place such remuneration as the Minister may direct.
(7) The Railway Assessment Authority and the Joint Authority respectively may repay to any member of the Authority and to any substitute appointed as aforesaid the amount of any travelling expenses necessarily incurred by him in the discharge of his duties under this Act and may pay to him reasonable allowances in respect of any personal expenses so incurred by him.
(8) The provisions contained in the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution and procedure of the Railway Assessment Authority and the Joint Authority and with respect to the manner in which any expenses incurred by them under this Act are to be defrayed and the manner in which their accounts are to be made up and audited.
(9) The Railway Assessment Authority shall make to the Minister, and the Joint Authority shall make to the Minister and to the Secretary of State, an annual report of their proceedings. Each such report shall include a summary of the accounts of the Authority and shall be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as may be after it is received by the Minister.
3 Preparation of railway valuation roll.
(1) As soon as may be after the constitution of the Railway Assessment Authority, and thereafter at intervals of five years, that Authority shall prepare a railway valuation roll showing the net annual and rateable values of every railway hereditament in England.
A roll shall be divided into parts and the particulars relating to each railway company shall be entered in a separate part.
(2) The first railway valuation roll shall come into force on the appointed day, and every subsequent railway valuation roll shall come into force at the expiration of five years from the day appointed by this subsection for the preceding roll to come into force, and the period during which any roll is in force is in this Act referred to as a ‘quinquennial period.’
(3) The Railway Assessment Authority in preparing a railway valuation roll shall in accordance with the provisions hereafter in this Act contained—
(i) determine, in the case of a railway company's undertaking which is carried on in England, but not in Scotland, the net annual value of the undertaking as a whole, and in the case of a railway company's undertaking which is carried on in England and in Scotland, the net annual value of the undertaking as a whole, in so far as it is carried on in England; and
(ii) apportion the net annual value so determined among all the railway hereditaments in England occupied by that railway company; and
(iii) calculate the rateable value of every such hereditament by reference to the net annual value so apportioned to it.
4 Determination of net annual value of railway undertaking carried on in England but not in Scotland.
(1) Where a railway company's undertaking is carried on in England but not in Scotland, the net annual value of the undertaking as a whole shall for the purposes of the preparation of a railway valuation roll be determined in accordance with the following provisions, that is to say—
The Railway Assessment Authority shall—
(a ) ascertain, in the case of the first railway valuation roll, the average net receipts of the company for the accounting years nineteen hundred and twenty-eight and nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, and, in the case of each subsequent roll, the average net receipts of the company for the first five of the six accounting years next preceding the year in which the roll is to come into force; and
(b ) estimate by reference to the average net receipts ascertained as aforesaid the rent at which the railway hereditaments occupied by the company might reasonably be expected to let as a whole from year to year, if the tenant undertook to pay all usual tenant's rates and taxes and tithe rentcharge (if any) and to bear the cost of the repairs and insurance and other expenses (if any) necessary to maintain the hereditaments in a state to command that rent;
and the annual rent so estimated shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the net annual value of the company's undertaking as a whole.
(2) In estimating for the purposes of this section the rent at which the railway hereditaments occupied by a company might reasonably be expected to let as a whole, the Railway Assessment Authority and any court before which any determination of the Authority is under appeal shall not be bound to give effect to any custom or practice affecting the valuation of railway hereditaments which obtained prior to the passing of this Act in regard to the deduction or allowance to be made in respect of the capital of a tenant, but shall have regard to all relevant...
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