Clause 136 (Hansard, 17 July 1972)

§ Mr. Speed

I beg to move Amendment No. 635, in page 88, line 10, leave out from first 'for' to 'shall' and insert 'any area'. I hope that it will be convenient also to deal with Amendment No. 636.

These two Amendments are linked. Subsection (3) of Clause 136 limits the expenditure of a local authority authorised by the Clause to the product of a rate of ½p in the £, or such other amount as may be fixed by an order made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Subsection (7) lays down how the penny rate, by reference to which this limit is determined, should be calculated.

As subsection (7) now stands, this penny rate product is that which would be estimated by the rating authority for the purposes of county or Greater London Council precept purposes. However, for the purposes of the existing provision relating to expenditure otherwise unauthorised, the penny rate product is that prescribed by rules made under Section 113 of the General Rate Act 1967—Section 6 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1963, as amended by rule 5 of the Rate Product Rules, 1968—and a special penny rate product is laid down for this purpose in that it ignores rate rebates and the Government grant towards rate rebates.

These Amendments accordingly amend Clause 136(7) so that the relevant penny rate product will be one prescribed for the purpose in accordance with rules made under Section 113 of the General Rate Act 1967. This will enable the penny rate not only to be made to correspond with the one applicable now, but also to be made, if desired, to take into account circumstances other than 294 rate rebates, for example resources available through the rate support grant.