The Local Government Changes For England (Property Transfer and Transitional Payments) Regulations 1995

Disposal of surplus land

10.—(1) An authority in whom any surplus land is vested on the reorganisation date (“the custodian authority”)—

(a) shall use its best endeavours to secure that the land is disposed of as soon as is reasonably practicable; and

(b) shall not, except with the consent of the Secretary of State, dispose of it for a consideration which is less than the best that can reasonably be obtained.

(2) Where the custodian authority is a successor authority, the authority shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable after a disposal under paragraph (1) above—

(a) deduct the amount of any relevant expenditure from the amount received in respect of the disposal (“the disposal receipt”); and

(b) if the amount found after that deduction is a positive amount, distribute that amount in accordance with provisions included in an agreement as mentioned in regulation 5(2)(d)(ii).

(3) Where the custodian authority is the relinquishing authority in relation to a transferred area, the authority shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable after a disposal under paragraph (1) above—

(a) deduct the relevant proportion of any relevant expenditure from the appropriate proportion of the disposal receipt; and

(b) if the amount found after that deduction is a positive amount, pay that amount to the acquiring authority in relation to the area.

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3) above—

(a) the appropriate proportion is the proportion equal to the proportion which the population of the transferred area bears to the population of the area which, immediately before the reorganisation date, was the area of the relinquishing authority; and

(b) the population of an area shall be taken to be the number estimated by the Registrar General by reference to the date which, at the reorganisation date, is the latest date in respect of which such an estimate is available.

(5) Where the whole of a custodian authority’s relevant expenditure is not met by a deduction of such expenditure from the amount of a disposal receipt as mentioned in paragraph (2) or (3) above, that authority may recover an amount equal to the relevant proportion of any relevant expenditure which is not so met from—

(a) where the custodian authority is a successor authority in relation to an abolished authority, any other successor authority in relation to that authority; or

(b) where the custodian authority is the relinquishing authority in relation to a transferred area, the acquiring authority in relation to that area.

(6) For the purposes of paragraphs (3) and (5) above, the relevant proportion means such proportion as the authorities concerned may agree, or failing such agreement—

(a) where those authorities are successor authorities in relation to an abolished authority, the proportion equal to the proportion which the council tax base of the authority from whom an amount is to be recovered for the financial year in which the disposal takes place bears to the aggregate of the council tax bases for that financial year of all the successor authorities; and

(b) where the authorities concerned are the relinquishing authority and the acquiring authority in relation to a transferred area, the proportion equal to the proportion which the relinquishing authority’s estimate of the council tax base of the transferred area for that financial year bears to that authority’s estimate of the council tax base for that year of the area which, immediately before the reorganisation date, was the area of that authority.

(7) In this regulation—

“relevant expenditure” means a sum equal to the amount by which the total of expenditure properly incurred by the custodian authority in connection with the management or disposal of surplus land exceeds the total of payments (other than the disposal receipt) received by that authority in respect of the land; and

“surplus land” means any land identified in an agreement as mentioned in paragraph (2)(d)(i) or, as the case may be, (6)(b)(ii) of regulation 5.