Local Government Act 1948

Railways and Canals; rating provisions.

86 Definition of railway or canal hereditament.

(1) In this Part of this Act, except where the contrary is expressly provided, the expression " railway or canal hereditament " means a hereditament occupied for any of the purposes of the British Transport Commission specified in subsection (2) of this section :

Provided that no premises occupied as a dwelling-house, hotel or place of public refreshment, or so let out as to be capable of separate assessment, shall be deemed to be, or to form part of, a railway or canal hereditament.

(2) The purposes referred to in subsection (1) of this section (elsewhere in this Act referred to as " non-rateable purposes ") are—

(a) all purposes of the parts of the undertaking of the Commission which are concerned with the carriage of goods or passengers by rail or inland waterway or the provision of facilities for traffic by inland waterway ; and

(b) all purposes of any parts of their undertaking which are subsidiary or incidental to any such part as aforesaid, not being parts thereof concerned with road transport, sea transport or harbours or parts thereof subsidiary or incidental to the parts thereof concerned with road transport, sea transport or harbours :

Provided that—

(i) services performed by the Commission in connection with the collection and delivery of parcels, goods or merchandise conveyed or to be conveyed by rail or inland waterway shall be deemed for the purposes of this subsection to be performed in carrying on -a part of the Commission's undertaking concerned with the carriage of goods by rail or inland waterway and not in carrying on a part of their undertaking concerned with road transport ; and

(ii) where a hereditament is occupied mainly for non-rateable purposes as defined by the preceding provisions of this section, and partly for the purposes of the central direction and control of the affairs of the Commission, the last-mentioned purposes shall be deemed for the purposes of this Part of this Act to be non-rateable purposes.

(3) In this section, the expression " harbour " has the same meaning as in the [10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 49.] Transport Act, 1947, and the expression " road transport " includes transport by a light railway or tramway, if the light railway or tramway is laid wholly or mainly along a public highway and is used wholly or mainly for the carriage of passengers.

87 Railway or canal hereditaments partly used for other purposes.

(1) Where a railway or canal hereditament is occupied partly for non-rateable purposes and partly for other purposes—

(a) the hereditament shall not, by virtue of the preceding provisions of this Part of this Act, be exempt from liability to be rated and from inclusion in any valuation list or in any rate ; but

(b) there shall be ascribed to the hereditament such net annual value as may be just having regard to the extent to which it is occupied for those other purposes ; and

(c) the deductions, if any, to be made from the net annual value in arriving at the rateable value shall be calculated with regard only to those other purposes.

(2) Where by or under any enactment the amount of any water rate in England or Wales is to be determined by reference to the gross value or net annual value of any property as appearing in the valuation list for the time being in force, then, if the property in question is or forms part of a hereditament to which subsection (1) of this section applies, the value thereof for the purposes of that water rate shall not be determined by reference to the said gross value or the said net annual value but shall be determined in the event of any dispute by the county court for the county court district in which the property in question is situated.

(3) The power to make; orders conferred by subsection (2) of section forty-nine of this Act (which enables the Lord Chancellor to combine county court district or direct that one county court district shall be included in another county court district for the purposes of that section) shall include power to make-orders in relation to the purposes of this subsection, and the said subsection (2) shall have effect accordingly.

88 Repeal of certain provisions of Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, &c.

(1) The provisions of the [20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 24.] Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, specified in Part III of the Second Schedule to this Act and the enactments amending or applying that Act shall cease to have effect, and the Railway Assessment Authority and the Anglo-Scottish Railways Assessment Authority shall cease to exist.

(2) Any documents or other property of the said Authorities shall be disposed of in such manner as the Minister may direct, and any liabilities of the said Authorities, and any sum payable by the Minister under any provision of this Act by way of compensation to any officer or servant of either of those Authorities, shall be defrayed out of such payments falling to be made under this Part of this Act for the benefit of local authorities in England and Wales as the Minister may direct:

Provided that—

(a) as respects documents or other property of the Anglo Scottish Railways Assessment Authority, the powers conferred by this subsection on the Minister shall be exercised only with the consent of the Secretary of State; and

(b) such part as the Minister and the Secretary of State, acting jointly, may direct of the liabilities of, and of any sums payable by way of compensation to any officer or servant of, the Anglo-Scottish Railways Assessment Authority shall be defrayed by the British Transport Commission (as successors to the .railway companies referred to in subsection (8) of section twenty-two of the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930).

89 Commencement of provisions as to railway or canal hereditaments and transitional provisions.

(1) The provisions of this Part of this Act, so far as they relate to railway or canal hereditaments, the repeals in the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, the repeal of the enactments amending or applying that Act, and the abolition of the authorities referred to in that Act, shall (subject to the provisions of the next succeeding subsection) come into operation on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight.

(2) The following provisions of this subsection shall have effect as from the passing of this Act, that is to say—

(a) the railway valuation roll for the fourth quinquennial period under the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930 and the London Passenger Transport valuation roll for the third quinquennial period under the said Act as applied by the London Passenger Transport (Valuation for Rating) Scheme, 1935, shall not be completed ; and

(b) any part of such a roll for either of the periods aforesaid which has been completed shall be deemed never to have come into force ; and

(c) any alteration made in any valuation list by way of substituting for values or other particulars appearing in that list values or other particulars entered in any such part of a roll as aforesaid shall be deemed never to have been made ; and

(d) any valuation list altered as aforesaid, and any rate made, whether before or after the passing of this Act, in accordance with that list as so altered, shall be corrected accordingly ; and

(e) where the preceding provisions of this subsection affect the amount of any rate levied in respect of any hereditament in accordance with any such list, the difference, if too much has been paid, shall be repaid or allowed, or, if too little has been paid, shall be paid and may be recovered as if it were arrears of the rate,

and any reference in the subsequent provisions of this section to a valuation list shall be construed, in relation to a valuation list which is required by this subsection to be corrected, as a reference to the list as so corrected.

(3) Until other provision is made under Part III of this Act, either by the preparation of new valuation lists or by the alteration of existing lists, the hereditaments in England and Wales which, on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, are shewn in the valuation lists as railway hereditaments within the meaning of the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, or as transport hereditaments within the meaning of that Act as applied by a scheme under section ninety-two of the [23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 14.] London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, or as freight transport hereditaments used wholly or partly for railway transport purposes or canal transport purposes and occupied by the British Transport Commission or one of the bodies specified in the Third Schedule to the Transport Act, 1947, shall, unless—

(a) they are shown in the said lists on that date as freight transport hereditaments used wholly for dock purposes; or

(b) they appear from the said lists on that date to be hereditaments used wholly for tramway or trolley-bus purposes of that part of the British Transport Commission's undertaking which corresponds to the undertaking of the London Passenger Transport Board,

be deemed to be railway or canal hereditaments for the purposes of this Part of this Act :

Provided that this subsection shall have effect subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section.

(4) The hereditaments which, under subsection (3) of this section, are to be deemed to be railway or canal hereditaments shall be dealt with as follows in the lists, that is to say—

(a) all those hereditaments, other than such thereof as are shown in the lists as freight transport hereditaments used partly for dock purposes or as appear from the lists to be used partly for tramway or trolley-bus purposes of that part of the British Transport Commission's undertaking which corresponds to the undertaking of the London Passenger Transport Board, shall be omitted from the lists ; and

(b) the net annual values of those of the said hereditaments which are not so omitted shall be the net annual values shown in the lists on that date as attributable to dock purposes, or the said tramway or trolley-bus purposes, as the case may be,

and it shall be the duty of all assessment committees to cause to be made, on the said first day of April, or as soon as may be thereafter, all such alterations in the valuation lists as are necessary to give effect to the provisions of this subsection, including alterations of totals of values, and the said alterations, when made, shall have effect as from the said first day of April.

(5) Save as provided in the preceding provisions of this section, and without prejudice to the provisions of the next following subsection, no alteration shall be made in any valuation list—

(a) so far as it relates to any hereditament in England or Wales which is by virtue of subsection (3) of this section to be deemed to be a railway or canal hereditament; or

(b) for the purpose of securing that any other hereditament in England or Wales is treated as or as part of a railway or canal hereditament,

until the provisions of Part III of this Act relating to the alteration of valuation lists by means of proposals made by or served on valuation officers have come into force.

(6) Save as provided in the preceding provisions of this section, no alteration shall be made in any valuation list in force at the date of the passing of this Act so far as that list relates to any hereditament in England or Wales which, on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, is shown in the valuation list as a railway hereditament within the meaning of the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, or as a transport hereditament within the meaning of that Act as applied by a scheme under section ninety-two of the London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, or as a freight transport hereditament used wholly or partly for railway transport purposes or canal transport purposes and occupied by the British Transport Commission or one of the bodies mentioned in the Third Schedule to the Transport Act, 1947:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall—

(a) affect any new list made under Part III of this Act; or

(b) prevent an alteration in a list in force at the date of the passing of this Act being made under and in accordance with the provisions of the said Part III by means of a proposal made by or served on a valuation officer where the ground of the proposal is that the hereditament ought to be but is not, or ought not to be but is, treated as a railway or canal hereditament under this Part of this Act, or that the value thereof has been affected since the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight by the making of structural alterations or by the total or partial destruction of any building or other erection by fire or any other physical cause ; or

(c) prejudice the operation of the next succeeding section.

(7) Where an alteration is made in the valuation list under subsection (4) of this section, the rating authority shall, where necessary, make the corresponding amendment in any rate made in respect of a period beginning on or after the said first day of April, and the amendment shall have effect as from the beginning of the said period.

90 Hereditaments shown as railway hereditaments, &c, but not in fact occupied by British Transport Commission.

(1) Where, on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, the whole or any part of a hereditament which is shown in any valuation list in force at the said date as a railway hereditament within the meaning of the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930, or as a transport hereditament within the meaning of that Act as applied by a scheme under section ninety-two of the London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, is in the occupation of some person other than the British Transport Commission, such amendments may be made of the valuation list (by way of proposal under Part III of this Act, of proposal under the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925, or of provisional or supplemental list, according as may be appropriate) as are necessary to secure that that hereditament or, as the case may be, that part thereof, appears as a separate hereditament in the list, as if it had not been shown in the valuation list as being, or forming part of, a railway hereditament or a transport hereditament.

(2) For the purpose of the liability of any person (other than the British Transport Commission) to rates, an amendment made under this section shall, in relation to any rate (including any rate for a period which has already elapsed when the amendment is made), have effect as from the beginning of the quinquennial period under the Railways (Valuation for Rating) Act, 1930 (or, as the case may be, under that Act as applied by the London Passenger Transport (Valuation for Rating) Scheme, 1935) current at the date of the passing of this Act or as from the date on which the hereditament ceased to be in the occupation of the British Transport Commission or, as the case may be, the relevant body specified in the Third Schedule to the Transport Act, 1947, whichever is the later date ; and the amount underpaid shall be paid and may be recovered as if it were arrears of the rate.