View report page

54
Valuation.
73. This Bill which was introduced into the House of Commons
by the Government proposed to apply the present law
relating to assessments in London with some modifications
to the whole of the country as recommended by the Royal
Committee on Local Taxation in 1901. The Bill proposed to repeal
practically the whole of the Acts which deal with assessments, and
provided, for the first time, for a quinquennial valuation simultaneously
throughout the country. The Metropolitan Borough Councils, as
Overseers, would have continued to perform all the preliminary work
of collating the necessary information and making the list, but the
County Council would have had power to appoint a person to value
special property and have such valuer's figures inserted in the list,
and, if they thought fit, to appoint some one to make the list instead
of the Borough Council, and to do so if the Borough Council failed to
make the list. Assessment Committees were to be abolished and the
County Council was to become the Valuation Authoritv, with power
of supervision and regulation with regard to making and revising the
lists. A Valuation Committee was to be established for each Metropolitan
Borough. This Committee was to be formed of such number of
members as the County Council might fix, and to consist of members
of the Borough Council (who were to form a majority of the Committee)
together with a number of members of the Board of Guardians
and other members appointed by the County Council. In those
Boroughs which constitute a separate Poor Law area, the Guardians
were not to be represented. It was proposed that a Provisional List
should in future operate only from the date of the service of a copy of
the list as confirmed by the Valuation Committee. Supplemental Lists
were to be made yearly as in the past. Appeals were to be limited to
Quarter Sessions. The first Schedule to the Bill laid down rules with
respect to the quorum, proceedings and place of meetings, and as to
the appointment of Sub-Committees. The Clerk to the Committee
was to be appointed by the County Council. The maximum deductions
from the gross to arrive at the rateable value prescribed by the Valuation
(Metropolis) Act, 1869, were made fixed deductions. The notices and
forms were to be prescribed by the Local Government Board and the
Treasury.
74. This Council approved generally of the Bill, and suggested
that it should be amended so as to provide that a Provisional List shall
have operation as respects any hereditament not previously assessed
from the date the hereditament becomes occupied and as respects any