§ "If, as respects any parish, the period for the making of parochial adjustments limited by paragraph 5 of the Seventh Schedule to the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925, has been extended in accordance with the provisions of that paragraph, the sum, if any, remaining due on the appointed day from that parish to the rating authority in respect of any such adjustment as aforesaid shall be taken to be such sum as may be certified by the district auditor to be such part of the amount actually so due as bears to that amount the same proportion as the reduced rateable value of the parish bears to the unreduced rateable value thereof."—[Sir K. Wood.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ Sir K. WOODI beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."
This is rather a technical matter, dealing with the adaptation of enactments relating to the adjustment of what we call parochial balances, and it is inserted in order to avoid a difficulty which might otherwise arise in consequence of derating. In the appropriate Schedule of the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925, it is provided that adjustments are to be made by the rating authorities to secure that each parish in the rating area is to take advantage of its credit balance or to make good its debit balance, as the case may be. The adjustment;! are to be made within three years from the 1st April, 1927, but the Minister is permitted under that enactment to extend the time.
The adjustment is effected by means of a differential rating and the sums of which account is to be taken in making the adjustment are to be certified by the district auditor. Most of these adjustments are now completed, but in some 1061 cases where there are debit balances the Minister has found it necessary to extend the period up to 1935 and in certain cases up to the year 1937. The effect of de-rating will, of course, be to increase the poundage of the additional rate necessary to produce the remainder of the sum certified by the auditor, and it is thought, in response to representations made by various authorities, that a case has been made out for reducing this sum so far as it remains unpaid on the ground that the deficiency will be made up by the new Exchequer grants. This Clause accordingly provides that as regards any sum not discharged by the appointed day the district auditor may certify a reduced amount bearing !;he same ratio to the sum outstanding as the reduced rateable value bears to the unreduced rateable value at the appointed day. With this explanation the Committee will be satisfied that justice is being done.
§ Mr. E. BROWNI rise to make only one observation. I shall read with very great interest to-morrow the precise phraseology of the Parliamentary Secretary as to possible rate increase in poundage. He knows that I have taken a great interest in de-rating on the yield of a penny in the £, and the last sentence he has uttered may be of material assistance to myself and other hon. Members who have taken an interest in the effect of de-rating.
§ Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.