Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1953

Finances of local authorities

1 Power of local authorities to establish certain special funds

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, a local authority may establish either or both of the following funds, that is to say—

(a) a capital fund, to be used for defraying any expenditure of the authority to which capital is properly applicable, or in providing money for repayment of loans (but not in making any annual payment required to be made in respect of loans);

(b) a renewal and repairs fund, to be used for the purpose of defraying expenditure to be incurred from time to time in repairing, maintaining, replacing and renewing any buildings, works, plant, equipment or articles belonging to the authority.

(2) A fund established by a local authority under this section shall not be used to meet, directly or indirectly, any expenditure incurred by the authority for the purposes of an undertaking of the authority, being a transport, water, district heating, harbour, dock, pier or ferry undertaking or a market or civic restaurant, or incurred for the purposes of any functions of the authority as a local education authority.

(3) Pending the application of any such fund as aforesaid for the purposes authorised by this section, the moneys in the fund shall (unless applied in any other manner authorised by any enactment) be invested in statutory securities; and any income arising from the investment of those moneys, or otherwise from the application of the fund, shall be carried to the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be.

(4) The provisions of this section shall be in addition to and not in substitution for any other enactment authorising a local authority to establish a fund for a purpose for which a fund may be established under this section; and where such a fund has been established by a local authority before the commencement of this Act, the Minister may, by order made by statutory instrument on the application of that authority, make provision for the amalgamation of that fund with any corresponding fund established by that authority under this section.

(5) In this section " statutory securities " means any security in which trustees are for the time being authorised by law to invest trust moneys, and any mortgage, bond, debenture, debenture stock, stock or other security created by a local authority, other than annuities, rentcharges or securities transferable by delivery, but does not include, in the case of any local authority, any securities of that authority.

2 Capital funds

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a local authority by whom a capital fund is established under section one of this Act may pay into that fund—

(a) any sums derived from the sale of any property of the local authority, not being property held by them for any such purposes as are mentioned in subsection (2) of section one of this Act;

(b) the whole or any part of the surplus of the revenue income over the revenue expenditure of the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be, on the thirty-first day of March in any year, except so far as required by law to be applied to or carried forward for any other purpose ; and

(c) such other sums from the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be, as the local authority may by resolution direct;

and shall pay into that fund a sum equal to the amount of any income arising from the fund which is carried to the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be, under subsection (3) of section one of this Act.

(2) The aggregate amount paid by a local authority into a capital fund under paragraphs (b) and (c) of subsection (1) of this section shall not, except with the consent of the Minister, exceed in any year the equivalent of the product of a rate in the pound for the area of the authority (as defined by subsections (3) and (4) of section one hundred and forty-four of the Local Government Act, 1948) of the following sum, that is to say—

(a) in the case of a local authority being the council of a county borough, four pence;

(b) in the case of a local authority being the council of a county, threepence;

(c) in the case of a local authority being the council of a metropolitan borough or county district, and in the case of the Common Council of the City of London, twopence ;

and no payment shall be made by the local authority into such a fund so as to make that fund exceed such sum as the Minister may from time to time determine either generally or in any particular case.

(3) In the case of an application of moneys in any such capital fund, the amount to be applied shall not in any one transaction exceed such sum as the Minister may from time to time determine as aforesaid.

(4) Except as provided by this section, all moneys derived from the sale of land which are applied from any such capital fund shall, and all other moneys applied from any such fund may if the local authority think fit, be repaid from ,the account to which those moneys are advanced by such annual instalments (with or without interest) and within such period as the local authority may determine.

(5) Except with the consent of the Minister, moneys comprised in any such capital fund which are derived from the sale of corporate land within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1933, shall not be applied otherwise than in the acquisition of other corporate land; and subsection (4) of this section shall not apply to any such moneys which are applied in the acquisition of such land.

3 Renewal and repairs funds

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a local authority by whom a renewal and repairs fund is established under section one of this Act may from time to time pay into that fund such sums as they think fit from the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be, and shall so pay a sum equal to the amount of any income arising from the fund which is carried to the county fund or the general rate fund, as the case may be, under subsection (3) of section one of this Act.

(2) No payment shall be made by a local authority into any such renewal and repairs fund so as to make the fund exceed such sum as the Minister may from time to time determine either generally or in any particular case.

(3) The purposes for which any such renewal and repairs fund may be applied shall not include expenditure for the purposes of an undertaking of the authority in respect of which the authority are authorised to provide a reserve fund, or in connection with any building in respect of which the authority are required under the enactments relating to housing to keep a housing repairs account.