(1)For the year 1959-60 and subsequent years the Minister shall make grants to the councils of counties and county boroughs in England and Wales and the Council of the Isles of Scilly; and those grants shall, save as provided in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, be in lieu of the grants paid or payable for those years under any enactment passed before this Act in respect of expenditure (hereinafter referred to as " relevant expenditure") specified in the said Part I and not excluded by any provision of Part II of that Schedule.
The grants payable under this section are hereinafter referred to as " general grants", and the said councils as " recipient authorities ".
(2)For each of the said years there shall be a prescribed aggregate amount of the general grants payable to recipient authorities; and subject to the provisions hereinafter contained as to the adjustment of general grants by reference to the prescribed aggregate, and to the other provisions of this Part of this Act relating to general grants, the amount of the general grant payable to a recipient authority for any year shall be the aggregate of—
(a)the basic grant specified in Part III of the First Schedule to this Act, and
(b)any of the supplementary grants so specified which are payable in accordance with the provisions of the said Part III,
reduced, if it is so prescribed, by the product for the area of the authority of a rate of such sum in the pound as may be prescribed.
(3)The general grants payable to any recipient authority shall be paid at such times as the Minister may with the consent of the Treasury determine, and shall be payable in aid of the revenues of the recipient authority generally.
(4)The provisions of Part IV of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect as to the making of adjustments of general grants and of the aggregate amount thereof in respect of matters specified in the said Part IV. ,
(5)The matters which under this section and Part III of the First Schedule to this Act are to be prescribed shall be prescribed by an order made by the Minister with the consent of the Treasury and after consultation with such associations of local authorities as appear to him to be concerned and with any local authority with whom consultation appears to him to be desirable.
(6)Such an order (hereinafter referred to as a " general grant order ") shall be laid before the Commons House of Parliament together with a report by the Minister explaining the considerations leading to the provisions of the order, and shall not have effect until approved by a resolution of that House.
(7)General grant orders shall be made in advance for successive periods (hereinafter referred to as " grant periods") of not less than two years, but as respects any matter to be prescribed by a general grant order the order may make different provisions for different years in the grant period.