Local Government Act 1972

210 Charities. E+W

(1) Where, immediately before 1st April 1974, any property is held, as sole trustee, exclusively for charitable purposes by an existing local authority for an area outside Greater London, other than the parish council, parish meeting or representative body of an existing rural parish in England (but including the corporation of a borough included in a rural district), that property shall vest (on the same trusts) in a new local authority in accordance with subsections (2) to (5) below.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, where the property is held by one of the existing authorities specified below, and is so held for the benefit of, or of the inhabitants of, or of any particular class or body of persons in, a specified area, the property shall vest in the new authority specified below, the area of which comprises the whole or the greater part of that specified area, and where the property is so held but is not held for such a benefit, it shall vest in the new authority specified below, the area of which comprises the whole or the greater part of the area of the existing authority, that is to say—

(a) where the existing authority is a county council, the new authority is the council of the new county;

(b) where the existing authority is the council of a borough or urban district in England, the new authority is the council of the parish constituted under Part V of Schedule 1 to this Act or, where there is no such parish, the council of the district;

(c) where the existing authority is the council of a borough or urban district in Wales, the new authority is the council of the community or, where there is no such council, the council of the district; and

(d) where the existing authority is a rural district council, then, if the rural district is coextensive with a parish, the new authority is the parish council, and in any other case the new authority is the council of the district.

(3) Where the property is held by an existing county council or county borough council for the purposes of a charity registered in the register established under section 4 of the M1 Charities Act 1960 in any part of that register which is maintained by the Secretary of State by virtue of section 2 of that Act (educational charities) then—

(a) if the property is so held for the benefit of, or of the inhabitants of, or of any particular class or body of persons in, a specified area, the property shall vest in the new authority which is the local education authority for the whole or the greater part of that specified area, and

(b) in any other case, the property shall vest in the new authority which is the local education authority for the whole or the greater part of the area of the existing county council or county borough council by which the property is held.

(4) Where the property is held by the corporation of a borough included in a rural district, it shall vest in the parish council for the parish consisting of the area of the existing borough.

(5) Where the property is held by the parish council, parish meeting or representative body of an existing rural parish in Wales, then—

(a) in the case of property held by an existing parish council, the property shall vest in the community council for the community or group of communities, the area or areas of which are co-extensive with the area of the parish or parishes for which the existing parish council act;

(b) in the case of property held by the parish meeting or representative body of an existing parish the area of which is comprised in a community for which there is a community council, the property shall vest in that community council; and

(c) in any other case, the property shall vest in the council of the district which comprises the area of the existing rural parish.

(6) Where, immediately before 1st April 1974, any power with respect to a charity, not being a charity incorporated under the Companies Acts or by charter, is under the trusts of the charity or by virtue of any enactment vested in, or in the holder of an office connected with, any existing local authority to which subsection (1) above applies, that power shall vest in, or in the holder of the corresponding office connected with, or (if there is no such office) the proper office of, the corresponding new authority, that is to say, the new authority in which, had the property of the charity been vested in the existing local authority, that property would have been vested under subsections (1) to (5) above.

(7) References in subsection (6) above to a power with respect to a charity do not include references to a power of any person by virtue of being a charity trustee thereof; but where under the trusts of any charity, not being a charity incorporated under the Companies Acts or by charter, the charity trustees immediately before 1st April 1974 include either an existing local authority to which subsection (1) above applies or the holder of an office connected with such an existing local authority, those trustees shall instead include the corresponding new authority as defined in subsection (6) above or, as the case may require, the holder of the corresponding office connected with, or (if there is no such office) the proper officer of, that authority.

(8) In section 10(1) of the M2 War Charities Act 1940 (registration authorities) for paragraph (b) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(b) as respects any London borough, the council of the borough”and in paragraph (d) for the word “county” there shall be substituted the words “non-metropolitan county or metropolitan district”.

(9) The M3 Charities Act 1960 shall have effect subject to the following amendments:—

(a) in section 10(1) (local authorities’ index of local charities) for the word “borough” there shall be substituted the words “district or London borough”;

(b) in section 11 (reviews of local charities by local authority) in subsections (1) and (4) for the word “borough” there shall be substituted the words “district or London borough”, and in subsection (5) for the words “to (7)” there shall be substituted the words “and (5)”;

(c) in section 12(1) (co-operation between charities and local authorities) for the words “county borough, of a metropolitan borough” there shall be substituted the words “London borough”;

(d) all the words in section 18(12) from “but a parish” to the end shall be omitted;

(e) the powers of appointment under subsections (3), (4) and (5) of section 37 (parochial charities) shall, in the case of a community in Wales for which there is no community council, be exercisable by the district council, and, in the case of an existing urban parish in England which after 1st April 1974 is not comprised in a parish, the power of appointment under subsection (5) of that section shall be exercisable by the district council; and

(f) in Schedule 3 (enlargement of areas of local charities) in both columns of paragraphs 3 and 4, for the word “borough”, in each place where it occurs, there shall be substituted the word “district”; in paragraph 4(iv) (in column 2) forthe words “parish or parishes (Civil or ecclesiastical)” there shall be substituted the word “district”.

(10) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall affect any power of Her Majesty, the court or any other person to alter the trusts of any charity and nothing in those provisions shall apply in a case to which section 211 below applies.

(11) In this section the expression “local authority”, in relation to a parish, includes a parish meeting and the representative body of a parish, and the expressions “charitable purposes”, “charity”, “charity trustees”, “court” and “trusts” have the same meanings as in the M4 Charities Act 1960.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 210 excluded by National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 (c. 32), s. 25(4)

C2 The text of s. 210(8)(9)(a)–(d)(f) is in the form in which it was originally enacted: it was not reproduced in Statutes in Force and does not reflect any amendments or repeals which may have been made prior to 1.2.1991.

Marginal Citations

M1 1960 c. 58.

M2 1940 c. 31.

M3 1960 c. 58.

M4 1960 c. 58.