A.D. 1926.

11 & 12

Geo. 5. c. 67.

(Emergency Provisions).

SCHEDULE.

PROVISIONS OF 13 & 14 GEO. 5. c. 6. CONTINUED.

Section of Act.

Subject Matter.

Section one - Continuance until the first day of April, nineteen
hundred and twenty-four, subject to certain 5
modifications, of section one of the Local
Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, 1921,
which provides for the temporary extension
of charges on the Metropolitan Common Poor
Fund.

10

Substitution for "the first day of April, nineteen
"hundred and twenty-three," of the "first
day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-
"four," in the following provisions of the
Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, 15
1921; that is to say:

(a) the proviso to subsection (3) of section
three thereof (which enabled the Minister
of Health in certain circumstances to
extend the time within which sums 20
borrowed under that section are to be
repaid if borrowed before the first day
of April first mentioned);

(b) Subsection (1) of section six thereof
(which provided that money borrowed 25
by a local authority before the first-
mentioned first day of April for certain
purposes is not to be reckoned as part
of the debt of the local authority for
the purposes of any enactment limiting 30
the powers of borrowing by that
authority);

(c) Subsection (2) of section six thereof
(which suspended until the first-men-
tioned first day of April the operation 35
of subsection (3) of section two hundred
and thirty-four of the Public Health
Act, 1875).

38 & 39 Vict. c. 55.

Presented by Mr. Neville Chamberlain.

MEMORANDUM.

This Bill substitutes a system of granting general powers, subject, in certain matters, to specific central regulation and control, to the larger local authorities for the present system of giving them specific powers for particular purposes.

Clause 1 enables the councils of counties, the larger boroughs and urban districts to acquire land, and do everything which a company, acting under the Companies Act, 1908, might lawfully do. Clause 2 specifies the procedure by which the powers set forth in clause 1 may be enacted. Clause 3 deals with borrowing powers and the sanction of the Board of Trade to loans, and compels a council to obtain the consent of Parliament through a Board of Trade Provisional Order when the proposed loan exceeds one quarter of the annual rateable value of the rated property in the council's area.

By clause 4 the Board of Trade may authorise a council to exercise its powers under this Act outside its own area when this is deemed desirable.

Clause 5 enables councils to combine in an undertaking.

By clause 6 a council is restrained from selling or leasing an undertaking for a longer period than seven years, unless it has obtained the sanction of the Board of Trade. By clause 7 smaller district councils and parish councils may exercise powers, but only with the Board of Trade's consent and under conditions to be prescribed by them. Clause 8 requires every council to place the net profits of their undertakings in a common fund, which fund may not be used for the reduction of rates. Nothing in the Bill interferes with the existing powers of councils conferred upon them by public or private statute, Provisional Order, or common law.