Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1955

4 Provisions as to making and levying of rates

(1) For the purposes of the making and levying of rates in a rural rating area for any rate period beginning on or after the date of the coming into force of the first new valuation list for that area.—

(a) no special rate shall be made or levied; and

(b) any expenses, which, but for the preceding paragraph, would have been chargeable on the whole or a part of the rating area by means of a special rate shall be levied in the area, or in that part of the area, as the case may be, together with, and as an additional item of, the general rate.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) of section four of the Act of 1925, and of subsection (1) of section fifty-four of the Act of 1948 (which provide that a rate shall be deemed to be made on the date on which it is approved by the rating authority), a resolution of a rating authority as respects the making of a rate shall be taken to constitute approval of the rate if the resolution specifies the amount per pound of rateable value at which the rate is to be levied, notwithstanding that the resolution—

(a) is made without reference to any rate book, or to individual hereditaments, or

(b) does not take account of any privilege in respect of rating conferred on the occupiers of hereditaments in any particular part of the rating area, or on the occupiers of any particular hereditaments, or

(c) does not take account of any amount leviable in the rating area, or in a part of that area, together with, and as an additional item of, the rate in question.

(3) The last preceding subsection shall be deemed always to have had effect:

Provided that for the purposes of any enactment which requires any step to be taken within a specified time after the making of a rate, the taking of such a step (whether after or before the passing of this Act) shall be deemed not to be or have been out of time if—

(a) before the passing of this Act the rating authority passed a resolution approving the rate book, or approving the amounts of the rates to be levied on the several hereditaments in the rating area, and

(b) the step in question is or was taken within the specified time after the passing of that resolution.

(4) Where any person other than the occupier of a hereditament is liable—

(a) to be rated in respect of the hereditament under the provisions of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, or of section eleven of the Act of 1925, or

(b) to pay or collect the rates in respect of the hereditament in pursuance of an agreement made with the rating authority under any of those provisions,

then, notwithstanding anything in section nineteen of the said Act of 1869 (which requires the name of the occupier to be inserted in the rate book whether he is the person liable to be rated or not), it shall not be necessary to insert the name of the occupier in the rate book.

(5) Where, immediately before the coming into force of the first new valuation list for a rating area, a resolution of the rating authority (in this subsection referred to as " the old resolution ") is in force under subsection (1) of section eleven of the Act of 1925, the rating authority may by resolution under this subsection direct that hereditaments which—

(a) were included in the class defined in the old resolution immediately before the new valuation list came into force, but

(b) have ceased to be included in that class by reason that, in the new valuation list, there have been ascribed to them rateable values higher than the rateable value by reference to which the class was defined, but not exceeding such maximum amount (whether within or above the limit imposed by subsection (1) of the said section eleven) as may be specified in the resolution under this subsection,

shall be treated as included in the class defined in the old resolution while the resolution under this subsection remains in force:

Provided that a resolution under this subsection, if not previously rescinded, shall cease to have effect on the rescission of the old resolution, or when the first new valuation list for the rating area is superseded by a subsequent valuation list, whichever first occurs.

(6) While a resolution under the last preceding subsection is in force, paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of the said section eleven (which requires an allowance to be made to owner-occupiers in certain cases) shall apply with the substitution, for the reference to the rateable value mentioned in that paragraph, of a reference to the maximum amount specified in the resolution under the last preceding subsection.

(7) Where a new valuation list is to come into force for a rating area, the rating authority for that area may make a rate by reference to that list for the year, or any part of the year, beginning with the day on which the list is to come into force, notwithstanding that the list is not in force at the time when the rate is made ; and accordingly, for the purposes of the making of such a rate at a time before the new list comes into force, references in any enactment to the valuation list in force at the time when the rate is made shall be construed as references to the new list.