HC Deb 04 April 1963 vol 675 cc59-60W
55. Sir W. Teeling

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will give an assurance that the committee set up to study the impact of rates on different sections of the community and different income groups will report before the end of the next financial year, and that adjustments will be made for those who have been found to be unfairly assessed, and from whom the new rates will have been collected during 1963.

Sir K. Joseph

I shall ask the committee to report as soon as they are able, but ratepayers who think that their assessments are unfair should not wait for the committee's report but should make proposals for reductions in the usual way. Any reduction which results from a proposal ordinarily has effect from the beginning of the period in which the proposal is served on the valuation officer.

Mr. Temple

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether he will publish a table on similar lines to Table II in his statement of 18th March, giving values in money terms of the various classes of property and including the figures for rate deficiency grant.

Sir K. Joseph

For the rateable values of the respective classes I would refer my hon. Friend to Appendix I of the White Paper on "Distribution of Rateable Values between different classes of property in England and Wales" (Cmnd. 1982) presented last Monday. The estimates of rate-deficiency grant on which Appendix II of the White Paper and Table II in my reply on 18th March to my hon. Friend the Member for Kidderminster (Sir G. Nabarro) are based are £121,276,000 for 1962–63 and £137,353,000 for 1963–64.

Mr. Temple

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table similar to that published in Command Paper No. 1663, on page 4, having regard particularly to the latest estimates of rate deficiency grant and contribution from Crown Properties for 1963–64.

Sir K. Joseph

The analyses made for the purposes of Command Paper No. 1982 do not enable the values for other than domestic hereditaments to be apportioned among the classes shown in the table on page 4 of Command Paper No. 1663. If all those hereditaments are treated as a single class the table is as follows:

Houses Other property Rate-deficiency grant
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.
Share before revaluation 41.10 46.35 12.55
Share after revaluation 40.52 45.27 14.21
Change due to revaluation (i.e., difference between the shares expressed as a percentage of the share before revaluation) - 1.4 - 2.3 + 13.2