Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1955

PART I

Calculation of rateable value on which rates are to be assessed

1 The provisions of this Part of this Schedule shall have effect for the purpose of calculating, for any rate period, the rateable value of the hereditament which a Gas Board is to be treated as occupying as mentioned in subsection (1) of section six of this Act.

2 (1) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Minister shall issue to each Gas Board a certificate specifying the amount which, for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule, is to be the Board's basic total of rateable values.

(2) In determining that amount, in the case of a Gas Board, the Minister shall have regard to the aggregate of the rateable values, on the first day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, of the premises, other than excepted premises, which were occupied by the Board on that day, subject to any such adjustment of that aggregate as, in the case of that Board, the Minister may consider appropriate in view of—

(a) any determination, under section eighteen of the Gas Act, 1948, whereby premises, which were not occupied by the Board on that day, vested in the Board by virtue of that Act, or whereby premises which were occupied by the Board on that day vested in another person, or

(b) any transfer of property between that Board and another Gas Board in pursuance of an order under section six or section twenty-four of that Act, or

(c) any other circumstances appearing to the Minister to be relevant in the case of that Board.

3 (1) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Minister of Fuel and Power shall issue to each Gas Board a certificate specifying the number which, for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule, is to be the Board's standard number of therms.

(2) The number so certified, in the case of any Board, shall be the total number of therms estimated by the said Minister to have been supplied, in the year beginning with the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, to consumers in the area of that Board, by persons any of whose property or rights vested in any Gas Board by virtue of the Gas Act, 1948.

4 (1) For each year beginning after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, each Gas Board's basic total of rateable values shall be adjusted and apportioned in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph.

(2) For each such year each Gas Board shall—

(a) estimate the total number of therms supplied by the Board in the penultimate year to consumers in their area, and

(b) calculate and certify the amount by which that total exceeds, or falls short of, the Board's standard number of therms;

and the Board's basic total of rateable values shall be adjusted for that year by multiplying it by the fraction of which—

(i) the numerator is the Board's standard number of therms increased by one-fifth of the said excess, or, as the case may be, decreased by one-fifth of the said deficiency, and

(ii) the denominator is the Board's standard number of therms.

(3) The said basic total, as adjusted for any year under the last preceding sub-paragraph, shall be apportioned for that year among all the rating areas in which any therms were supplied by the Board to consumers, or manufactured by the Board, in the penultimate year; and the proportion of the adjusted total to be allocated to any one of those areas shall be ascertained by multiplying the adjusted total by the fraction of which—

(a) the numerator is the number of therms supplied by the Board to consumers in that area in the penultimate year, as estimated and certified by the Board, plus nine-tenths of the number of therms (if any) manufactured in that area by the Board in the penultimate year, as so estimated and certified, and

(b) the denominator is the total number of therms supplied by the Board to consumers in the area of the Board in the penultimate year, as estimated and certified by the Board, plus nine-tenths of the total number of therms manufactured by the Board in the penultimate year, as so estimated and certified.

5 The amount which, in accordance with the last preceding paragraph, is allocated for any year to a rating area, in the case of a Gas Board, shall be the rateable value of the hereditament which that Board is to be treated as occupying in that area for any rate period consisting or forming part of that year.