Local Government Act 1974

Part I — Grants

Rate support grants

Reports on investigations: further provisions.

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Elements of rate support grants

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Rate support grant orders

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Variation of rate support grant orders

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Reduction of grants in case of default

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Grants for particular purposes

Supplementary grants for transport purposes

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• (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (8) In consequence of the introduction of supplementary grants for transport purposes and of the provisions of this Part of this Act relating to rate support grants, the provisions of Part II of Schedule I to this Act shall have effect with respect to certain grants under . . . the Transport Act 1968.

Supplementary grants towards expenditure with respect to National Parks

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Specific grants for purposes not covered by rate support grants

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• (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (5) The provisions of Part III of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the termination of certain grants for specific purposes, other than highways and public transport.

Grants and loans by the Countryside Commission

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Supplementary

Supplementary provisions for Part I

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• (1) The following bodies are local authorities for the purposes of this Part of this Act, namely,—

• (a) the council of a county,

• (b) the Greater London Council,

• (c) the council of a district,

• (d) the council of a London borough,

• (e) the Common Council of the City of London, and

• (f) the Council of the Isles of Scilly,

...

• (2) In this Part of this Act —

• ...

• “year” means a period of twelve months beginning with 1st April.

• (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Part II — Rating

The statutory rate rebate scheme

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• (1) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make, with the consent of the Treasury, a scheme (in this Part of this Act referred to as " the statutory rate rebate scheme ") for the grant by rating authorities to residential occupiers of rebates from rates calculated in accordance with the provisions of the scheme by reference to their needs and their resources.

• (2) The statutory rate rebate scheme shall have effect in respect of rebate periods beginning on or after 1st April 1974, and accordingly no person shall be entitled in respect of any such rebate period to a rate rebate under section 49 of the principal Act.

• (3) Without prejudice to the generality of the power conferred by subsection (1) above, the statutory rate rebate scheme may contain provisions corresponding, so far as the Secretary of State considers appropriate, to provisions of Part I of Schedule 3 or Part I of Schedule 4 to the Housing Finance Act 1972 (model schemes of rent rebates and rent allowances).

• (4) In this Part of this Act " rebate period " means such period as may be determined in accordance with the statutory rate rebate scheme, and that scheme may make provision for the determination of different periods in relation to different residential occupiers or different classes of residential occupiers.

Local rate rebate schemes

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• (1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, a rating authority may by resolution make for their area a scheme (in this Part of this Act referred to as a " local rate rebate scheme ") for the grant by the authority to residential occupiers of rebates from rates calculated in accordance with the provisions of the scheme by reference to their needs and resources.

• (2) A local rate rebate scheme may take the form of a scheme distinct from the statutory rate rebate scheme or may operate by way of variation of that scheme, and accordingly any reference in this Part of this Act to a local rate rebate scheme includes a reference to the statutory rate rebate scheme as so varied.

• (3) A local rate rebate scheme shall be so framed as to secure that, in the estimate of the rating authority,—

• (a) for any rebate period no person will be entitled under the scheme to a rate rebate less than that to which he would be entitled under the statutory rate rebate scheme; and

• (b) the total of the rebates which will be allowable under the local rate rebate scheme in any year will not exceed the permitted total of rebates for that year.

• (4) In relation to a local rate rebate scheme for any area, the permitted total of rebates for any year is 110 per cent. of the total of the rate rebates which (if the local rate rebate scheme had not been in force) would have been allowable in that year to residential occupiers in that area under the statutory rate rebate scheme.

• (5) A local rate rebate scheme may be revoked or varied by a further resolution of the rating authority and, except in so far as the Secretary of State otherwise directs,—

• (a) any such scheme and any variation thereof shall take effect with respect to any rebate period beginning on or after such date as may be specified in the rating authority's resolution, and

• (b) a resolution revoking a local rate rebate scheme shall take effect at the expiry of any rebate period which is current, or which expires, on such date as may be specified in the resolution,

and, as soon as practicable after a rating authority has passed a resolution making, varying or revoking a local rate rebate scheme, the authority shall send a copy of the resolution to the Secretary of State.

• (6) As soon as practicable after the end of any year in which a local rate rebate scheme has been in operation, and in any case not later than 31st July next following, the rating authority concerned shall send to the Secretary of State a certificate specifying—

• (a) the total amount of the rate rebates allowed in that year under the local rate rebate scheme, and

• (b) the permitted total of rebates for that year and, if the local rate rebate scheme was not in operation during the whole of that year, the fraction of that permitted total which corresponds to the fraction of the year during which the local scheme was in operation.

• (7) Where it appears from a certificate under subsection (6) above that the amount specified as mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection exceeds the permitted total or, as the case may be, the appropriate fraction of the permitted total referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection, it shall be the duty of the rating authority to send to the Secretary of State, together with that certificate, a statement of—

• (a) their proposals for varying or revoking the local rate rebate scheme so as to secure that the total of the rate rebates allowed in the year following that to which the certificate relates will not exceed the permitted total of rebates for that year ; or

• (b) their reasons for believing that no change is necessary in the local rate rebate scheme in order to secure that result.

• (8) If the Secretary of State is of the opinion that any proposals made by a rating authority under subsection (7)(a) above will not secure the result (referred to in that subsection, or that some variation of a local sate rebate scheme will be required to secure that result, notwithstanding the contrary view expressed by a rating authority in a statement under subsection (7)(b) above, or if it comes to the knowledge of the Secretary of State that the condition in subsection (3)(a) above is not fulfilled with respect to the entitlement of any person to a rate rebate under a local rate rebate scheme, the Secretary of State may by order provide—

• (a) that from such date as may be specified in the order the local rate rebate scheme shall have effect subject to such variations as may be so specified and that, within such minimum period as may be specified, no other variations may be made in the scheme by the rating authority ; or

• (b) that the local rate rebate scheme shall be revoked with effect from such date as may be specified in the order and that no new local rate rebate scheme shall be brought into operation for the rating area concerned within such period as may be so specified.

Residential occupiers

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• (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, the following persons are residential occupiers for the purposes of this Part of this Act, namely,—

• (a) a person who is the occupier of, and resides or is usually resident in, a hereditament which is a dwelling-house and which at the relevant date has a rateable value not exceeding the specified limit;

• (b) a person who is the occupier of a hereditament which is not a dwelling-house, but who resides or is usually resident in a part of the hereditament which is used for the purposes of a private dwelling and has at the relevant date a rateable value not exceeding the specified limit;

• (c) a person who, not being the occupier of any such hereditament as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) above, resides or is usually resident in a part of any such hereditament, which part is used for the purposes of a private dwelling and at the relevant date has a rateable value not exceeding the specified limit, and in respect of which he makes payments by way of rent to the occupier or any other person who is himself a residential occupier.

• (2) Where two or more persons are joint occupiers of a hereditament such as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of subsection (1) above, or joint tenants of such a part thereof as is mentioned in paragraph (c) of that subsection, then, for the purposes of rate rebates under the statutory rate rebate scheme or a local rate rebate scheme, the rating authority may treat one of those persons as if he were the sole occupier of the hereditament or, as the case may be, sole tenant of that part thereof.

• (3) For the purposes of paragraphs (b) and (c) of subsection (1) above, the rateable value on any day of part of a hereditament shall be taken to be such value as is found by a proper apportionment of the rateable value of the whole hereditament on that day; and any question arising under this subsection as to the proper apportionment of any rateable value shall be determined by the county court, whose decision shall be final.

• (4) In subsection (1) above,—

• (a) " the relevant date ", in relation to a person making an application for a rate rebate under the statutory rate rebate scheme or a local rate rebate scheme, means the beginning of the year in any part of which a rebate granted to him in pursuance of the application will be effective, and

• (b) " the specified limit", in relation to a hereditament, means such limit of rateable value as the Secretary of State may by order specify for the purposes of this section in relation to hereditaments in the rating area in which that hereditament is situated.

Supplementary provisions as to eligibility for rate rebates

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• (1) Subject to subsection (2) below, no residential occupier liable for rates in respect of a hereditament in any area shall be eligible to apply for a rate rebate under the statutory rate rebate scheme in respect of those rates for any rebate period during which a local rate rebate scheme is in operation in that area.

• (2) If any such residential occupier as is referred to in subsection (1) above shows to the satisfaction of the rating authority that the local rate rebate scheme does not in his case fulfil the condition in section 12(3)(a) above, he shall be eligible to apply for a rate rebate under the statutory rate rebate scheme and, if he makes such an application for any rebate period, he shall cease to be eligible to make an application for that period under the local rate rebate scheme.

• (3) If, in a case where a residential occupier is liable for rates in respect of a hereditament for a rate period beginning on or after 1st April 1974,—

• (a) the residential occupier is entitled to a rebate from those rates under the statutory rate rebate scheme or a local rate rebate scheme, and

• (b) the rating authority affords him relief in respect of those rates under section 53 of the principal Act (reduction or remission of payment of rates on account of poverty),

the rating authority shall grant him a rebate as mentioned in paragraph (a) above only if, and to the extent that, the amount of the rebate exceeds the aggregate amount afforded him as mentioned in paragraph (b) above.

• (4) In section 16(2) of the Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 (rate rebates to which persons in receipt of supplementary benefit might otherwise be entitled reduced if their requirements were determined without regard to any rate rebate) for the words " section 5 of the Rating Act 1966 " there shall be substituted the words " a scheme under section 11 or section 12 of the Local Government Act 1974 ".

Rating of unoccupied property

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• (1) In section 17 of the principal Act (rating of unoccupied property in accordance with Schedule 1 to that Act) in subsection (2)—

• (a) so much of paragraph (a) as provides that, except with the authority of the Secretary of State, a resolution providing that the provisions of Schedule 1 to that Act shall apply to an area may not take effect within the period of seven years beginning with the day on which those provisions ceased or last ceased to apply to that area, and

• (b) so much of paragraph (b) as provides that, except with the authority of the Secretary of State, a resolution providing that the provisions of Schedule 1 to that Act shall cease to apply to an area may not take effect within the period of seven years beginning with the day on which those provisions came or last came into operation in that area,

shall cease to have effect.

• (2) In subsection (5) of that section for the words " This section and the said Schedule 1 shall not apply to the Temples, and in their application " there shall be substituted the words " In the application of this section and the said Schedule 1 ".

• (3) In paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 1 to the principal Act (where, by virtue of a resolution under section 17 of that Act, that Schedule is in operation in any area, every relevant hereditament in that area which is unoccupied for a continuous period exceeding three months shall be rated in accordance with the provisions of that Schedule) after the words " in that area " there shall be inserted the words " or, if only a class or classes of relevant hereditament is or are for the time being specified by a resolution of the rating authority for the purposes of this paragraph, any relevant hereditament in that area which falls within that class or any of those classes ".

• (4) In sub-paragraph (2) of paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the principal Act (the amount of rates payable in respect of a vacant hereditament to be one-half of the amount which would be payable if the hereditament were occupied) for the words " one-half " there shall be substituted the words " the specified proportion " , and at the end of that sub-paragraph there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph:—

(2A) In sub-paragraph (2) above ' the specified proportion ', in relation to a hereditament, means such proportion (which may be the whole or any less amount) as may be specified for the purposes of this sub-paragraph by a resolution of the rating authority for the rating area in which the hereditament is situated; and different proportions may be so specified in relation to different classes of hereditaments and in relation to hereditaments in different parts of the rating area.

• (5) After paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the principal Act there shall be inserted the following paragraph:—

(3A) Without prejudice to section 53 of this Act, a rating authority shall have power to reduce or remit the payment of any rates payable in respect of a hereditament by virtue of paragraph 1 of this Schedule if they consider that the payment would cause hardship to the person liable for those rates.

• (6) At the end of paragraph 14 of Schedule 1 to the principal Act there shall be added the following sub-paragraph:—

(2) In calculating any period for the purposes of this Schedule in relation to a hereditament which is of a class specified by the rating authority for the purposes of paragraph 1 above, any earlier period during which classes of relevant hereditament were, but no class comprising that hereditament was, so specified shall be disregarded.

Rating surcharge on unused office, etc., property

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The following sections shall be inserted after section 17 of the principal Act:—