§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the source of the reference to Japanese inhabitants in the discussion of overseas local government taxes in the Green Paper "Paying For Local Government" (Cmnd. 9714).
§ Mr. HowardThe source, which is given in a footnote to figure K1 in the Green Paper, is "Local Public Finance in Japan", Jichi Sogo Centre, Tokyo, 1982.
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§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how users of non-commercial night shelters will be assessed for poll tax purposes.
§ Mr. HowardCommunity charges registration officers will be able to designate properties with a rapid turnover of residents for the collective community charge. The landlord of a designated property will be liable for the charge and will recover a contribution from each adult who stays in the property.
§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates he has made of the extra postage cost to local authorities of sending out monthly poll tax demands compared with domestic rate demands.
§ Mr. HowardCommunity charge demands will, like rate bills, be sent out at the beginning of the year or when a person becomes liable to pay.
§ Mr. Patnickasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will be taking powers to carry the present system of rate capping through the proposed new system of local government finance, in order to discourage councils from levying excessive community charges.
§ Mr. HowardThe main incentive for local authorities to restrain their spending under the new system will be the greater accountability to the local electorate which the community charge will establish. My right hon. Friend believes that it would be proper, however, to retain some form of safeguard against the possibility of a few reckless authorities having no regard to the consequences and seeking to levy an excessive charge to pay for high spending. The legislation that the Government are bringing forward this Session will therefore contain provisions for an authority's charge to be reduced, subject to affirmative resolution of the House, if my right hon. Friend determines that it is excessively high or represents an excessive increase over the previous year. The scheme will operate within the same financial year, so that charges which first fall for payment in April will, if they are found to be excessive, he reduced during the summer. Charge payers will either receive a refund or will have their payments for the rest of the year appropriately scaled down to achieve the same effect.