Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947

224 County rate and burgh rate.

(1) Every rating authority shall—

(a) for the purpose of defraying, so far as not met other wise, all expenditure of the authority on functions (other than functions with respect to public utility undertakings) under this Act or any other enactment or any statutory order relating to the whole area of the authority (including any sum required to be raised from rates relating to the whole area of the authority to meet a requisition); and

(b) for the purpose of defraying, so far as properly pay able out of rates relating to the whole area of the authority, expenditure of the authority on functions with respect to public utility undertakings;

levy a rate which shall be known, in the case of a county council, as the county rate, and, in the case of a town council, as the burgh rate, and separate rates shall not be levied in respect of expenditure on separate functions of the rating authority or any other local authority relating to the whole area of the rating authority:

Provided that—

(i) except so far as the Secretary of State may by order so direct or as is provided in a local Act, this subsection shall not apply with respect to expenditure falling to be defrayed out of water rates leviable under the provisions of a local Act, which water rates shall be leviable as separate rates ;

(ii) where by any enactment passed before the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and thirty, provision is made in the case of lands and heritages for a total or partial exemption from any rate then in use to be levied for the purpose of defraying such expenditure as is included in the rate under this subsection, the Secretary of State may, on the application of the rating authority or of any person interested, by order provide that in lieu of such exemption such portion only of the rate under this subsection as is specified in the order shall be leviable in respect of the said lands and heritages, and such enactment shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such order;

(iii) where an order has been made by the Secretary of State under subsection (1) of section nineteen of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, providing that such portion only of the consolidated rate under that subsection as is specified in the order shall be leviable in respect of the lands and heritages therein mentioned, that portion only of the rate under this subsection shall be leviable in respect of the said lands and heritages; and

(iv) where any enactment passed on or after the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and thirty, provides that such portion only of the consolidated rate under subsection (1) of section nineteen of the said Act of 1929, or under any corresponding provision of a local Act as is specified in the enactment, shall be leviable in respect of the lands and heritages therein mentioned, that portion only of the rate under this subsection shall be leviable in respect of the said lands and heritages.

(2) Such portion of the burgh rate as is levied to defray the expenditure (so far as not met otherwise) set out in the Fifth Schedule to this Act shall be payable by occupiers only, except as otherwise provided in a local Act and except where immediately before the commencement of this Act the said portion of the burgh rate was payable otherwise than by occupiers only by virtue of a resolution passed by the town council under subsection (4) of section three hundred and seventy-three of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, in which case the resolution shall continue to have effect for the period to which it relates, and such resolution may thereafter be renewed from time to time by the town council for a definite period, not exceeding at any one time five years, if passed by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the council present and voting at a meeting specially called for the purpose.

Where immediately before the commencement of this Act a rate leviable under a local Act formed part of the consolidated rate of a burgh by virtue of an order under subsection (1) of j- section nineteen of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, or of a local Act, and such rate was in accordance with the provisions of the local Act payable by owners only, or by occupiers only, or by owners and occupiers otherwise than in equal proportions, the burgh rate, so far as relating to the expenditure corresponding to that in respect of which the rate under the local Act was leviable, shall be payable, as the case may be, by owners only, or by occupiers only, or by owners and occupiers in the same proportions as in the case of the said rate.

(3) Subject to the provisions of this section, any reference in any enactment or document passed or dated before the commencement of this Act to a rate levied to meet expenditure which under this section is to be defrayed out of the rate levied under this section shall be construed as a reference to the rate under this section so far as the same relates to such expenditure.