The object of this Bill is to provide for the grant and distribution amongst county councils and certain urban districts of a sum of £250,000 to be applied by them in relieving to a certain extent the rates leviable during the current financial year in respect of agricultural land. The Bill proposes that the sum of £250,000 should be allocated in the proportions set forth in the Schedule to the Bill.
It is intended that the benefit of the grant should be given primarily to small farmers who, for this purpose, are taken to be persons in possession of agricultural land, the rateable value of which does not exceed £10. Larger farmers in possession of land of greater value are not excluded from benefit but will rank as if they were small farmers in possession of land not exceeding £10 in value. Other persons in occupation of agricultural land will participate in the benefit of the grant to the same extent as if they were small farmers. The benefit to be given was fixed at approximately three-fourths of the current rates leviable on such valuations.
Accordingly the proportion on which the grant is allocated is based on the aggregate of the number of valuation units of £10 or less in each county and urban district and the current rates leviable thereon. For this purpose, with certain exceptions, a person in occupation of agricultural land the total valuation of which exceeds £10 is treated as in occupation of land of a valuation of £10. These exceptions are specified in Section 2 of the Bill and comprise land in respect of which owners, not being occupiers, are rated under the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928, or land acquired by local authorities under the Labourers Acts or held by the Land Commission. Each tenement held by these persons and bodies is for the purpose of the Bill regarded as having a separate valuation unit and accordingly they get the benefit of the grant in respect of each holding.
The sum of £250,000 has therefore been apportioned between each of the counties and urban districts in proportion to the total of the valuation units calculated as described in each such county and urban district and the rates leviable thereon. Thus if each of the sums set forth in the Schedule is divided by the sum of the valuation units in each county and urban district, it will produce a rate in the £ equivalent to approximately three-fourths of the current rates leviable thereon in respect of agricultural land.
The remission of rates which each person will obtain is therefore measured by the product of his unit of valuation and such rates as so ascertained. The remission on this basis would roughly be equivalent to three-fourths of the current rates on land on the basis of a valuation of £10 or less.
At the time the Government announced their intention of making this grant, most of the rates in the counties and urban districts had either been made or were in process of being made and it was not considered practicable to have the rates revised on the basis of the grants to be made to each county and urban district. It is accordingly proposed that the allowances to be made to ratepayers will be made by the issue of credit notes to the amount of the remission due to each ratepayer.
On presentation of any such credit note in part payment of rates, credit will be given to the ratepayer concerned to the extent of the amount specified in the note. Such credit note may be presented in part payment of any rate due by the ratepayer. Provision is made for the refund either in whole or in part to a ratepayer, who has paid all his rates for the current year, of the amount of a credit note issued to him.
With a view to expediting the payment of rates it is provided that the benefit of credit notes must be claimed on or before the 31st day of March, 1933, the last day of the current financial year. Any proportion of the grant which is not disposed of by the end of that year will be applied in the subsequent year in like manner as the ordinary agricultural grant would be applicable, and thus any balance outstanding will go in relief of the general body of persons rated in respect of agricultural land.
It was necessary to give certain directions and instructions to county and urban district councils in anticipation of the provisions of this Bill, and accordingly by Section 10 of the Bill provision is made for their validation, and the validation of the acts done by those councils under such directions or instructions.
