View report page

94
London (Equalization of Rates) Act.— The principle
of the Act. in that a rate of 6d. in the pound
per annum forms the Equalization Fund; the
parishes contributing according to their rateable
value, and receiving according to their population
; parishes of a high rateable value and a small
population having therefore to contribute to the
fund, while those of a low rateable value and a
large population receive a grant from it. The net
amount received from the fund by the Parish of
Clerkenwell for the year ending 31st March, 1890,
was £3,266 1s 6d.
Correspondence has taken place with the Local
Government Board as to the method of computing
the number of dwelling houses in a parish by
counting each block of model dwellings as one
house, as being unfair to those parishes having a
large number of such dwellings. The Board have
forwarded a report by the Registrar-General upon
the subject.
The letter of the Registrar-General, whilst it
points out difficulties in adopting any other method,
does not meet cases such as that of Northampton
Buildings, in this Parish, where a large number of
houses, each calculated to contain the average
number of persons, are removed and replaced by a
small number of blocks of Artisans' Dwellings,
each of which is apparently calculated to contain
only the same average number. The Vestry have
pressed this point upon the Local Government
Board. The accuracy or otherwise of the calculation
will be tested very shortly by the census taken
for the purpose in March.
Collection of the Rates.—Of the rates made in
the Parish of Clerkenwell, a percentage of about