An Act to amend the law relating to Exchequer grants to local authorities and other bodies and grants by local authorities to other local authorities or other bodies, and the law relating to rating, valuation for rating and precepts to rating authorities; to provide for payments for the benefit of local authorities by the British Transport Commission, the British Electricity Authority and the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board; to amend the Railway Freight Rebates Enactments, 1929 to 1943, section two hundred and eleven of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947, the law relating to the payment of expenses and other allowances to members of local authorities and other bodies and the law relating to the manner in which certain securities of local authorities and other bodies may be transferred; to extend the powers of local authorities in certain respects; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
This Act provided for general unearmarked grants to be provided to local authorities “as nearly as possible on the basis of financial need.”[1] It established Exchequer Equalisation Grants (EEG) as the new block grant for local authorities. As noted by Ken Young and Nirmala Rao, these new grants were based on “the ratio between the average rateable value per head in each local authority and the average rateable value per head throughout the country.” The purpose of the EEG formula was to ensure that no local authority would fall below a national minimum of financial resources.[2]
Section 132 of the Act allowed local authorities to spend up to the product of a 6d rate for the provision of music, drama, entertainment, and other cultural endeavours. According to Janet Minihan,
“Section 132 at last eliminated the need for special enabling legislation and gave local authorities uniform opportunities to encourage cultural activities throughout their districts.”[3]
Notes
↑ Local Government and Central Control, Chapter III: Local government finances
↑ Local government since 1945 by Ken Young and Nirmala Rao
↑ To Build a New Jerusalem: the British Labour movement from the 1880s to the 1990s by A.J. Davies
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