HC Deb 02 November 1909 vol 12 cc1792-5

Subject to the provisions of this Act, the provisions with regard to the liability for, and the imposition and recovery by an assessing authority of any assessment of all Acts applicable within the respective burghs in which this Act may be in operation shall subsist in full force and effect, provided that in the application of sections three hundred and forty-five and three hundred and forty-six of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, in any burgh which, at the date of the census of nineteen hundred and one contained a population of fifty thousand or upwards, the following provisions shall apply and have effect (that is to say):—

(1) Section three hundred and forty-five of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, shall be read and construed as if the following provision were added thereto and contained therein (that is to say):— Provided that where small dwelling-houses within the meaning of the Small Dwelling-Houses in Burghs Letting and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1909, are let for a year or longer, and the rent is payable or paid more frequently or at shorter intervals than once in three months, such dwelling-houses shall be deemed, for the purposes of this section, to be let for less than a year.

(2)—(i) Every assessing authority shall in respect of the occupancy of small dwelling-houses allow to owners from all occupiers' assessments levied on and paid by them in place of the occupiers, under and in terms of section three hundred and forty-five or section three hundred and forty-six of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, as amended by any subsequent Act, a deduction, to cover cost of collection and risk of loss on the following scale (that is to say):—

  1. (A) Where the yearly rent or value entered on the valuation roll exceeds 1793 four pounds but does not exceed seven pounds, seven and one-half per centum;
  2. (B) Where the said yearly rent or value exceeds seven pounds but does not exceed ten pounds, five per centum; and
  3. (C) Where the said yearly rent or value exceeds ten pounds but does not exceed the limit of rental fixed by this act, three per centum:

Provided that, after such scale of deduction has been in operation in any such burgh for a period of not less than three years, it shall be competent for the assessing authority, or for any ten or more persons having an interest, to present a petition to the sheriff for reconsideration of such scale, and the decision of the sheriff, after such intimation by advertisement or in such other manner as he thinks fit, and after such inquiry, if any, as he may deem necessary, shall be final, but after the expiry of a period of not less than five years from the date of such decision, and thereafter at intervals of not less than five years from the date of the final interlocutor by the sheriff on the reconsideration of such scale, the scale may, subject to like procedure, be resubmitted to the sheriff for reconsideration.

(ii) Every such owner shall have relief against the occupiers for the full amount of such assessments without deduction.

(iii) Every such owner shall have the same claims and remedies for recovery from the occupiers of such assessments and rent as for the recovery of rent alone.

(3)—(i) Notwithstanding the payment by the owner of occupiers' assessments in respect of the occupancy of a small dwelling-house, if any small dwelling-house in respect of which such payment has been made shall not be let or occupied for the whole period for which assessments have been paid, the owner shall, upon lodging, on or before dates to be fixed by the respective assessing authorities, with the clerk to any such authority, or with such other officer as such authority may appoint for the purpose, a claim therefor, which shall set forth the period or periods during which the small dwelling-house was not let or occupied, and a declaration to the effect that no rent or other consideration was due or was or is to be paid or given for such period or periods, be entitled to repayment from such authority of the proportionate amount of such assessments for the said period or periods.

(ii) In the case of any small dwelling-house appearing in the valuation roll as unlet, the owner, on receipt of a requisition from an assessing authority, shall forthwith furnish such authority with a return containing particulars of any period or periods during which such small dwelling-house has been let or occupied, and the owner shall be liable to pay the proportionate amount of assessments for the said period or periods as if such small dwelling-house had not appeared in the valuation roll as unlet.

(iii) Any owner knowingly making or causing to be made any false statement in or in connection with any claim, declaration, or return under this section, or failing to make any such return, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.

Mr. URE moved to leave out from "that" in the first paragraph of the Clause ["provided that in the application of Sections three hundred and forty-five," etc.] all the words to "where" in Sub-section (1) ["Provided that where small dwellings,"] and to insert

"(a) The provisions of Sections three hundred and forty-five and three hundred and forty-six of The Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, shall apply to every assessment leviable within any such burgh by any assessing authority other than a town council in respect of the occupancy of small dwelling-houses with the substitution of such assessment and authority for the burgh general assessment and the town council, respectively;

"(b) Section three hundred and forty-five of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, as applying or applied (whether under the existing law or under the immediately preceding provision) within every burgh which at the date of the Census of 1901 contained within the police boundaries thereof a population of fifthy thousand or upwards, and within any other burgh in which this Act is in operation, and the town council of which by resolution so decides, shall be deemed to incorporate the following provisions (that is to say)—(1)."

Mr. SCOTT DICKSON

I have not seen this Amendment until to-day, when it appeared on the White Paper. Though one might take exception to it, yet as it is in the main consequential I will not put the House to the trouble of dividing.

Question, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Clause," put, and negatived.

Words proposed agreed to.

Further Amendments made in Lords Amendment—Clause A: After "1909" ["Burghs Letting and Eating (Scotland) Act, 1909 "] in paragraph (1) insert "hereinafter referred to as small dwelling-houses."

In same paragraph, leave out "this section," and insert "Section three hundred and forty-five of The Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892."

In paragraph (2)—(i.), after "Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892," leave out "as amended by any subsequent Act."

In paragraph (2)—(A) leave out "exceeds four pounds, but" and leave out "seven and one-half" and insert "ten."

In paragraph (2)—(B), leave out "five" and insert "seven and one-half."

At the end of paragraph (2)—(ii.) "insert" but such assessments shall only be recoverable by such owners from the occupiers along with payments of rent as such payments are fixed by the terms of let, and shall be paid by the occupiers only in amounts proportionate to the period for which rent is paid."—[Mr. Ure.]

Mr. URE moved, after Clause A, to insert, as consequential thereon,