London Government Act 1963

PART VIII Rating and valuation and associated matters

63 Rating and valuation

(1) Each London borough shall be a rating area and the rating authority therefor shall be the council of the borough; and, subject to subsection (2) of this section, the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 shall apply in Greater London as it applies elsewhere in England and Wales.

(2) The enactments relating to rating and valuation in England and Wales shall have effect subject to the modifications thereof specified in Schedule 15 to this Act, being—

(a) modifications consequential on the foregoing subsection and other provisions of this Act; or

(b) modifications of the said Act of 1925 in its application to Greater London; or

(c) modifications extending to the whole of Greater London provisions applicable to the existing county of London.

64 General grants

(1) The authorities to whom general grants are payable under Part I of the Local Government Act 1958 shall include the London borough councils and the Common Council, and accordingly references in the said Part I to recipient authorities shall include references to those councils.

(2) The expenditure which qualifies as relevant expenditure for the purposes of the said Part I shall include expenditure incurred by or on behalf of the Greater London Council in respect of the carrying out of that Council's functions by virtue of section 45(3) of this Act and any expenditure by way of contributions by that Council—

(a) by virtue of section 45(4) or 47(4) of this Act; or

(b) by virtue of section 46(3) of this Act so far as it relates to section 26(6) of the National Assistance Act 1948.

(3) Where the provision of any service giving rise to relevant expenditure within the meaning of the said Part I as amended by the last foregoing subsection is a function of the Greater London Council or of a joint board whose district is wholly or partly comprised in a London borough or in the City, section 3(1) of the said Act of 1958 (which enables the Minister to reduce a general grant in the case of default by a recipient authority) shall in relation to that borough or the City, as the case may be, apply to a failure on the part of the Greater London Council or the joint board to achieve or maintain reasonable standards as it would apply if the failure were that of the council of that borough or the Common Council, as the case may be.

(4) In its application to the council of an inner London borough or the Common Council, paragraph 4 of Part III of Schedule 1 to the said Act of 1958 shall have effect as if in sub-paragraph (1) thereof—

(a) for any reference to the local education authority there were substituted a reference to the Inner London Education Authority;

(b) the reference to the centres provided as mentioned in that sub-paragraph were a reference to such centres provided by the council of any of the inner London boroughs or the Common Council;

(c) for the first reference to the area of the authority there were substituted a reference to the Inner London Education Area and the second such reference were a reference to the inner London borough in question or, as the case may be, the City ;

and, for the purposes of sub-paragraph (2) (b) of that paragraph, as if the Inner London Education Area were the area of a single local health authority.

(5) In paragraph 8 (3) of the said Part III, for the words " the administrative county of London" there shall be substituted the words " Greater London ",

65 Rate-deficiency grants

(1) The authorities to whom rate-deficiency grants under Part I of the Local Government Act 1948 may become payable shall include the London borough councils, and accordingly references to those councils shall be substituted for references to metropolitan borough councils in sections 5 and 6 of the Local Government Act 1958 (which regulate the cases in which and conditions subject to which such grants are payable).

(2) For the purposes of the said section 5, sums payable by an authority by virtue of a precept issued by the Greater London Council, in so far as payable in respect of expenditure of that Council for general London purposes, shall not be treated as expenditure of the authority paying those sums.

(3) Section 6 of the said Act of 1958 (which provides for disregarding the amount of abnormal expenditure in determining the amount of any rate-deficiency grant) shall not affect the payment of rate-deficiency grants to a London borough council or the Common Council for the years 1965-66, 1966-67 and 1967-68.

66 Equalisation of rates

(1) The Minister may, subject to and in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this section, make as respects the whole or any part or parts of Greater London a scheme or schemes for the purpose of reducing disparities in the rates levied in different rating areas of Greater London other than the Temples.

(2) Any such scheme shall take the form of provision for the making of contributions by rating authorities in Greater London elsewhere than the Temples to other such authorities, either directly, or through the Greater London Council, or by means of adjustments by the Greater London Council in the amounts for which they precept on those rating authorities respectively, or, in the case of rating authorities in the Inner London Education Area, by a re-allocation between those authorities of the aggregate amount payable to them by virtue of section 64 of this Act, or by a combination of any two or more of those methods.

(3) Rules made under section 9 of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925 and regulations made under section 15 of the Local Government Act 1948 may make the like provision for the purpose of schemes under this section as may be made by such rules or regulations for the purposes of the said section 9 or Part I of the said Act of 1948, as the case may be; and for the purposes of section 14 of the said Act of 1948 (which relates to investigations into the working of Part I of that Act) this section shall be deemed to be included in the said Part I and the expression " local authority " in the said section 14 shall include the Greater London Council.

(4) Any scheme under this section may, subject to the next following subsection, be revoked or varied by any subsequent scheme under this section.

(5) Before making a scheme under this section, the Minister shall consult with any association or committee which appears to him to be representative of the London borough councils and with the Common Council and the Greater London Council.

(6) In section 5(6) of the Local Government Act 1958 (which, among other things, provides for disregarding payments under section 10 of the Local Government Act 1948 in determining the expenditure of an authority for the purpose of computing rate-deficiency grants) for the words "and, in the case of a local authority within the administrative county of London, no payments under section ten of the Act of 1948 were payable " there shall be substituted the words " were payable and, in the case of a local authority in Greater London, section 66 of the London Government Act 1963 had not been passed ",

67 Chargeability of part of rating area with expenses incurred for another part thereof

(1) Where, in the case of any rating area to which this section applies, different parts of that area would, apart from this section, be chargeable with expenses incurred by different authorities or bodies in the discharge of the like functions, then, if the rating authority so resolve, the aggregate of those expenses shall be chargeable on the whole of that area or, if those parts do not together comprise the whole of that area, on so much of that area as consists of those parts.

(2) This section applies to any rating area in Greater London and to any other rating area which falls partly in—

(a) the metropolitan police district; or

(b) the sewerage area of the Greater London Council; or

(c) some other area comprising the whole or part of Greater London prescribed for the purposes of this section by an order of the Minister.

68 Financial provisions applicable to the Common Council

(1) The Common Council may levy a general rate for the purpose of defraying any expenses incurred by them under any enactment, being expenses which do not fall to be defrayed out of the poor rate.

(2) The Common Council may for the purposes of any enactment borrow money under the City of London Sewers Acts 1848 to 1897 in accordance with the provisions of those Acts or of any other Acts regulating the mode of borrowing money by the Council.

(3) In any enactment passed after 1st August 1958 and applying or subsequently applied to the Common Council any reference to the general rate fund of a local authority or any description of local authority shall, except where the context otherwise requires, be construed in relation to the Council as a reference to the general rate of the City.

(4) The foregoing provisions of this section apply to the Common Council as local authority, as police authority and as port health authority.

(5) In this section any reference to any enactment includes a reference to any instrument made under an enactment and any reference to any enactment or instrument includes a reference to any enactment or instrument contained in or made under this Act, or passed or made after this Act.

69 Initial expenses of new authorities

(1) As soon as may be after the first election of councillors of the Greater London Council or, as the case may be, of any London borough, each existing rating authority whose area, or part of whose area, falls within Greater London or, as the case may be, that London borough shall, in accordance with arrangements made by the Minister by regulations, cause the appropriate contribution to be paid into the general fund of the Greater London Council or, as the case may be, the general rate fund of that London borough.

(2) In the foregoing subsection, the expression " the appropriate contribution" in relation to any existing rating area or any part of such an area means an amount equal to the product of a rate of a penny in the pound levied in that rating area or, as the case may be, that part thereof for the year 1964-65, being—

(a) in the case of the area of a county borough, that product ascertained in accordance with the rules for the time being in force under section 16 of the Local Government Act 1958;

(b) in a case where that product has been estimated by the rating authority for the purposes of section 9(2)(d) of the Rating and Valuation Act 1925, that product as so estimated;

(c) in any other case, that product estimated by the rating authority in like manner as it would fall to be estimated for the purposes of the said section 9(2)(d).

(3) Any expenses incurred by any returning officer in relation to the holding of the first election of councillors of the Greater London Council or, as the case may be, of any London borough which, apart from this subsection, would under paragraph 19 of Schedule 3 to this Act fall to be paid by the Greater London Council or, as the case may be, the council of that London borough shall be paid by the existing rating authorities whose areas fall wholly or partly within Greater London or, as the case may be, that London borough, the amount payable by each of those authorities being an amount bearing the same proportion to the aggregate amount of those expenses as the appropriate contribution of that authority to the general fund of the Greater London Council or, as the case may' be, the general rate fund of that London borough under the foregoing provisions of this section bears to the aggregate amount of the appropriate contributions so payable to the fund in question.

(4) The Greater London Council and the London borough councils may borrow for the purpose of meeting any expenditure incurred by them before 1st April 1965.

70 Transitional assistance to certain counties

(1) If the county of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent or Surrey incurs an additional rate burden consequential on this Act which exceeds the estimated product of a rate of fivepence in the pound for the county for the year 1965-66, the Greater London Council shall pay as part of their expenditure for general London purposes to the council of that county as part of their receipts for general county purposes—

(a) in the year 1965-66, an amount equal to that excess ;

(b) in the year 1966-67, an amount equal to seven-eighths of that excess;

(c) in the year 1967-68, an amount equal to three-quarters of that excess;

(d) in the year 1968-69, an amount equal to five-eighths of that excess;

(e) in the year 1969-70, an amount equal to half that excess ;

(f) in the year 1970-71, an amount equal to three-eighths of that excess;

(g) in the year 1971-72, an amount equal to a quarter of that excess;

(h) in the year 1972-73, an amount equal to one-eighth of that excess.

(2) The provisions of Schedule 16 to this Act shall have effect for the purpose of determining whether any, and if so what, additional rate burden consequential on this Act has been incurred by any of the counties aforesaid.

(3) Any payments made by the Greater London Council under this section shall be disregarded in ascertaining the expenditure of any county council for the purposes of section 5 of the Local Government Act 1958.