Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1928. THE BRITISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 5, 4 December 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1928. THE BRITISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

The Local Government Reform Bill now before the House of Commons appears to be meeting with opposition mainly from the Liberal’ and Labour Socialist members of the House who either fail to, or do not see that a measure designed to give relief to the ratepayers in country districts is a distinct help to, and must therefore necessarily benefit the agricultural industry which, in Britain as elsewhere, is on anything but a flourishing basis. The proposals covered by the Bill are intended to relieve both productive industry and agriculture. That relief cannot be given apart from reforms in the rating system and the Labour objection to the reforms suggested is probably dictated by the fact that they will result in the administration of the poor law being transferred from the poor law unions, or boards of guardians, to county councils and county borough councils, which will be called upon to submit schemes to the Ministry of Health for the administration of this service, and the delegation of their new functions to existing committees of the council or to new committees specially set up for the purpose. The responsibility for the maintenance of all roads in rural districts and of through communications in boroughs and urban and rural districts, outside the county boroughs, is to be transferred to the county councils. In lieu of the existing subsidies and grants for health services and roading purposes, fixed in most cases at 50 per cent .of the total expenditure, and to compensate for the rates lost through the relief of agricultural land, productive industry and freight transport, a block grant is to be provided, which will include additional Exchequer or Government money.

This block grant is to be fixed on a five-yearly basis, and,will be distributed in such a way that the additional Government money goes to local areas on the basis of their needs. In the case of the grants to counties, and county boroughs, a guarantee is given that there shall be a net gain of not less than Is per head of the population at the start of the new system, -which is to operate from April 1, 1930, and boroughs and district councils are' to be guaranteed against any loss on its introduction. The total Treasury grants for England, Scotland and Wales are to be increased by eight and a-half millions, partly in order to finance these guarantees, and partly to provide local authorities with a margin for future increased expenditure. The de-rating provisions applied to agricultural land and buildings, and the partial de-rating of productive industry, which are to come into force on October 1, will necessarily result in a large proportion of property which is now rateable being taken out of assessment altogether, the extent of which may be gathered from the fact that the official statistics show that the diminution in the field of assessment will vary, in rural areas, from about 3 per cent, to approximately 60 per cent.

THE STATE’S ASSISTANCE

Losing 60 per cent, of its rateable value, a local authority necessarily requires additional subsidy from the State. It will receive this as a result of the reform policy decided upon to make good the de-rating of productive industry and agriculture. If the latter is to be placed on a more stable footing than formerly, it is essential tfiat it should be relieved of taxation as far as possible. Without such assistance as the State proposes to afford the local authority to make good the loss sustained by the de-rating, the latter would have to levy a rate of 2s 6d in the £1 to obtain the equivalent of a Is rate to-day. The position of many local authorities in rural areas would, in fact, be rendered impossible without the proposed State assistance. After many years of local government in Britain, it is generally admitted that the existing system is full <sf injustices, inequalities and anomalies, both from the point of view of the burdens which fall upon different localities and of the .services which ratepayers in different localities enjoy. The poundage in rates varies in different districts from approximately 10s to as much as 53s in the £l. The de-rating of productive industry will diminish this difference so far as industry is concerned, but, without any reform, there would still be substantial differences in the burdens falling on industries in different areas, while the ordinary ratepayer would be left to suffer the full inequalities which exist to-day. It is 40 years since the last great local government reform was passed, and that reform was, by the way, placed on the Statute Book by a Conservative Government. _ In the intervening years conditions have completely changed. There has been a vast expansion in the social services, which have been paid for out of local rates and taxes, and revolutionary developments of load and rail transport, just as there have been in this country. The great railway companies in England are feeling the pinch of the altered circumstances. The demands of the guardians, for increased rating on account of the allowances which must be paid to the unemployed, have involved such heavy increases in rating that industry suffers both in the rural districts where the farmers are more heavily burdened, and in the manufacturing districts where the toll is equally heavy upon industry. The Government has taken the matter in hand and is transferring and minimising the burden as far as possible, or rather to do so in the near future, and it appears to have propounded a very workable scheme which should have the desired effect.