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72
opinion that this Council would not be justified in making an
allowance of 2½ per cent, to the London County Council.
The County Council made an alternative suggestion that the
allowance should be 6s. a tenement a year, but as this worked out
in excess of 2½ per cent., the Committee made no further reference
thereto.
The Committee had every sympathy with the tenants in the
wish they had expressed to pay an inclusive rent, and appreciated
that some of them might suffer hardship by reason of being obliged
to find comparatively large sums of money for the payment of
rates quarterly. As an instance of this Council's consideration
in the matter, it was mentioned that the whole of the houses, fiats
and tenements administered by them were let at inclusive weekly
rents.
In view of the fact that the Council did not make an allowance
either to their own Housing Account, or to any owner of small
property who collected inclusive weekly rents, the Committee adhered
to their opinion that the Council were not justified in making an
allowance of 2½ per cent, to the London County Council.
A reference had been made to the fact that other Borough
Councils made such an allowance, but on enquiry it was found
that only two Boroughs, namely, Lambeth and Wandsworth, had
adopted the proposal, although several Boroughs had compounding
allowances in force, i.e., they made allowances at various rates
per cent, on payment by the owner of the full amount of the rate.
The Committee further considered that the question of collecting
an inclusive weekly rent was a matter to be decided entirely
by the London County Council as between landlord and tenant.
The Council decided at this meeting to make representations
to the London County Council regretting that they had not seen
their way to collect weekly inclusive rents in respect of their
property in Camberwell, and strongly urging them to adopt this
method of collection in order to lessen the hardship experienced
by the tenants.
The Local Members of the County Council were asked to support
the representations the Council were making to the County
Council.
The Finance Committee reported to the next meeting of the
Council that since their report (as set out above), they had considered
the question of a weekly collection of rates by the Council.
After carefully considering the matter and having received a report
from the Borough Treasurer and Controller with regard to the
details for which provision would have to be made in any such
scheme, they recommended that in view of the heavy administrative
cost which would be entailed, that no action be taken in this direction.
The Council decided to adopt the recommendation of their
Committee.