War Damage (Public Utility Undertakings, &c.) Act 1949
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1949 c. 36 |
| Year | 1949 |
War Damage (Public Utility Undertakings, &c.) Act , 1949
(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 36.
An Act to repeal section seventy of the War Damage Act, 1943, to make provision with respect to war damage to immovable property, goods and commodities which belonged to certain undertakings or in which both such undertakings and others had interests and to war damage causing obstruction in waterways, to amend provisions of the said Act as respects such undertakings and otherwise in certain respects, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[31st May 1949]
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:—
Part I.
Public Utility Undertakings: Special Payment and Contribution Provisions.
Payments for war damage to land, goods and commodities of public utility undertakings, and contributions towards expense of making such payments.
1 Public utility payments and contributions, and land,goods and commodities to be the subject thereof.
(1) There shall be made, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this Act, payments in respect of war damage which has occurred on or after the third day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and has been notified for the purposes of the consultations mentioned in section two of this Act in accordance with the arrangements in that behalf made for the purposes of those consultations, being—
(a ) damage to land which immediately before the occurrence of the damage was held by a public utility owner otherwise than as landlord on a long term;
(b ) damage to land which immediately before the occurrence of the damage formed part of the distribution works of a public utility undertaking;
(c ) damage to the interests of bodies carrying on public utility undertakings in goods of a kind insurable against war damage which immediately before the occurrence of the damage were owned in the course of, or held or used mainly or exclusively for the purpose of, the carrying on of a public utility undertaking, or to the interests of such bodies in railway ships, in lightships (whether being goods of a kind so insurable or not), or in machinery, tackle or furniture of such ships; or
(d ) damage in respect of commodities of any of the following classes, that is to say gas of a kind used (whether unmixed or mixed with other gas) for heating, lighting or power purposes, materials and ingredients for such gas, and water, being commodities which immediately before the occurrence of the damage were owned in the course of the carrying on a public utility undertaking.
References in this Act to a payment in respect of a public utility undertaking are to a payment to be made under this section in respect of war damage to any property so related to such an undertaking as to bring the damage within the operation of this subsection.
(2) Contributions towards the expense of making the payments to be made under this section shall be made, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this Act, in respect of public utility undertakings carried on during the period beginning with the third day of September, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and ending with the eighth day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-five, and such contributions shall be treated for all purposes as outgoings of a capital nature.
(3) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect as to the definition for the purposes of this Act of a ‘public utility undertaking,’ and of an undertaking other than a public utility undertaking.
(4) References in this Act to ‘land held by a public utility owner otherwise than as landlord on a long term’ are to land in which, at the time to which the reference relates, there was subsisting a proprietary interest which—
(a ) was owned by the body by whom a public utility undertaking was carried on and was held by them for public utility purposes within the meaning assigned to that expression by paragraph 9 of the First Schedule to this Act, and
(b ) was not held in reversion expectant on a tenancy which was a proprietary interest:
Provided that, notwithstanding that the state of the ownership of a piece of land was such that the application of the preceding provisions of this subsection to it would bring it within references in this Act to land held by a public utility owner otherwise than as landlord on a long term, that piece of land shall not be within any such reference if at the time to which the reference relates it was a part only of a Schedule A unit and formed less than one-half in value of that unit, unless that unit then included also another or other pieces of land the state of the ownership whereof was such as aforesaid and both or all of those pieces of land taken together formed one-half or more in value of that unit.
(5) References in this Act to ‘distribution works’ are to mains, conduits, lines and other works, machinery, plant and buildings which in the opinion of the Treasury are such as to fall within the purposes of the provision made by subsection (1) of this section.
(6) The reference in this section to ‘goods of a kind insurable against war damage’ is to goods which, immediately before the occurrence of war damage thereto, were insurable, in relation to the body carrying on the public utility undertaking in question, under the business scheme operated under Part II of the War Damage Act, 1943 (in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’) or, if the damage occurred before that scheme came into force, would have been so insurable if that scheme had then been in force.
(7) The reference in this section to ‘railway ships’ is to ships which, immediately before the occurrence of war damage thereto, were owned in the course of, or held or used mainly or exclusively for the purpose of, the carrying on of a public utility undertaking being a railway undertaking, excluding ships then in the possession or held at the disposal of a Government department or other person on behalf of His Majesty (otherwise than by virtue of the taking of control on behalf of His Majesty of the undertaking or a part thereof).
(8) The reference in this section to ‘materials and ingredients for gas’ is to goods which, immediately before the occurrence of war damage thereto, were owned as materials from which such gas as therein mentioned was produced or as ingredients for such gas, and were in the United Kingdom or consigned from a port in the United Kingdom to another such port in a vessel which in its transit between those ports was not due to call at any port outside the United Kingdom.
2 Amounts of public utility payments and contributions,and bodies to and by whom they are to be paid.
(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, the respective gross amounts of the payments and contributions to be made under section one of this Act shall be determined by the Treasury having regard to consultations had between the Treasury or the appropriate Departments on the one hand, and the bodies concerned (that is to say bodies by whom the undertakings were carried on during the period mentioned in subsection (2) of section one of this Act or other bodies to or by whom the said payments and contributions are to be made) or organisations appearing to the Treasury to be representative of such bodies on the other hand.
(2) For the purposes of the said payments and contributions there shall be eight groups, named and in this Act referred to as specified in the first column of the Table set out at the end of this subsection, and comprising respectively, subject to the provisions of paragraph 7 of the First Schedule to this Act, public utility undertakings being undertakings of the classes specified in paragraph 1 of that Schedule, and—
(a ) the aggregate of the gross amounts of the payments to be made under section one of this Act in respect of undertakings comprised in any of the said groups shall be the sum specified in the second column of the said Table in relation to that group;
(b ) the aggregate of the gross amounts of the contributions to be made under section one of this Act in respect of undertakings comprised in each of the said groups shall be the following percentage of the sum specified in the second column of the said Table in relation to that group, that is to say, in the case of each group other than the harbour group twenty-seven and a half per cent., and, in the case of the harbour group, ten per cent.
Table.
Name of group. |
Aggregate of gross amounts of payments in respect of undertakings in group. |
(i) The railway group |
34,894,956 |
(ii) The canal group |
509,471 |
(iii) The harbour group |
28,623,184 |
(iv) The gas group |
12,211,142 |
(v) The electricity group |
9,663,194 |
(vi) The water group |
2,006,016 |
(vii) The sewerage group |
2,958,864 |
(viii) The lighthouse group |
336,853 |
(3) The gross amount of a payment or contribution under section one of this Act, as determined under the preceding subsections, shall be subject to reduction in accordance with the provisions in that behalf of paragraphs 2 and 4 respectively of the Second Schedule to this Act, by reference respectively to payments made before the passing of this Act as under the principal Act or Part II of the War Risks Insurance Act, 1939, and to contributions and premiums paid before the passing of this Act, and the...
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