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25
Equalisation of
Kates.
The Equalisation of Eates (London)
Bill, referred to in the last annual report,
lias again been brought forward tbis year. The Board
presented to the House of Commons the following
petition for alteration of the Bill, viz,:—
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of the Board of Works for the Wandsworth District,
in the Administrative County of London, under their Common Seal:
SiiEWETn
1. That your Petitioners are the Local and Sanitary Authority under the
Metropolis Management Acts and the Public Health (London) Act for the
District of Wandsworth, which comprises the Parishes of Clapham, Pulney,
Streatham, Tooting, and Wandsworth, having an area of over fourteenand-a-half
square miles, a population of about 175,000, and a rateable
value of £1,120,165.
2. That a Bill (hereinafter referred to as " the Bill ") has been introduced
into your Honourable House intituled " A Bill to mate better provision for
the equalisation of rates as between different parts of London."
3. Your Petitioners approve of the equalisation of rates in London, but
they are of opinion that the system adopted in the Bill for apportioning the
Equalisation Fund is inequitable.
4. Clause 1 (1) of the Bill provides that the London County Council
shall in every year form a fund, to be called the Equalisation Fund, equal
to a rate of 6d. in the £ on the rateable value of London.
5. Clause 1 (2) provides that the London County Council shall determine
half-yearly the contribution from each parish to one-half of the Equalisation
Fund and the grant due from that one-half of the Fund to each parish.
6. Clause 1 (3) provides that the contribution among the parishes is to
be determined in proportion to their rateable value.
7. Clause 1 (4) provides that the grant due shall be determined by
apportioning the amount of half the Equalisation Fund among the sanitary
districts in proportion to the population, and where a sanitary district comprises
two or more parishes by dividing that grant among those parishes in
proportion to their population ; with this exception, that where the aggregate
of the contributions from the parishes in the district is less than the
grant apportioned to the district the difference shall be paid out of the
Equalisation Fund to the sanitary authority of the district, and no payment
towards any equalisation charge shall be required from any parish in the
district.
8. Clause 1 (5) provides that subject as aforesaid where the contribution
from a parish is less than the grant due the difference shall be paid out of
the Equalisation Fund to the sanitary authority of the district forming or
comprising the parish, but if it exceeds the grant due to the parish the