(1)The Secretary of State may with the consent of the Treasury make to the National Coal Board such grants as it appears to him will further assist in the re-deployment of the manpower resources of the Board and the elimination of uneconomic colliery capacity.
(2)Grants made by the Secretary of State under this section shall be towards expenditure of the Board for any of the three years ending with 30th March 1974, being relevant expenditure as defined by section 3(3)(b) of the Act of 1965 (which comprises payments in respect of workers' redundancy, premature retirement or loss of prospects, and for housing, re-settlement, welfare etc.), but not including contributions in respect of increase in the cost of retirement benefits where those contributions are reimbursed by the Secretary of State under section 4 of the Act of 1967.
(3)Grants so made shall not exceed in the aggregate £24 million; and they shall not in respect of any year exceed in the aggregate an amount equal to the following proportion of the Board's relevant expenditure (as so defined) for that year—
(a)in the case of the year 1971-72, two-thirds ;
(b)in the case of the year 1972-73, one half;
(c)in the case of the year 1973-74, one third.
(4)In this section " year" means a financial year of the Board; and the reference to expenditure for any year shall be construed in accordance with section 3(3)(d) of the Act of 1965 (by which expenditure in one year may be attributed to an earlier year insofar as the obligations giving rise to it were undertaken in the earlier year, special provision being made with respect to finance for the provision of housing) with the substitution in that paragraph of a reference to this section for the reference to section 3.