The Local Government (Structural Changes) (Transfer of Functions, Property, Rights and Liabilities) Regulations 2008

Property held exclusively for charitable purposes

9.—(1) If the property is held for the benefit of, or of the inhabitants of, or of any particular class or body of persons in, a specified area, the property shall vest on the reorganisation date (on the same trusts) in the successor council whose area comprises the whole or the greater part of the specified area.

(2) If the property is not held as mentioned in paragraph (1), the property shall vest on the reorganisation date (on the same trusts) in the successor council whose area comprises an area which, immediately before that date, is the whole or the greater part of the predecessor council’s area.

(3) Property which is not vested in a successor council by virtue of paragraph (1) or (2) shall vest on the reorganisation date (on the same trusts) in such one of the successor councils as may be agreed between them not later than three months before that date or, failing such agreement, in such successor council as the Charity Commissioners shall determine.

(4) Any rights and liabilities of a predecessor council in respect of property to which any of paragraphs (1) to (3) applies shall, on the reorganisation date, vest in the successor council in which the property is vested.

(5) Where, immediately before the reorganisation date, any power with respect to a relevant charity is, under the trusts of the charity or by virtue of any enactment, vested in, or in the holder of, an office connected with a predecessor council, that power shall, on that date, vest in, or in the holder of the corresponding office connected with, or (if there is no such office) the proper officer of, the successor council in which the property of the charity would have vested under any of paragraphs (1) to (3) if that property had been property held by the predecessor council, as sole trustee, exclusively for charitable purposes.

(6) References in paragraph (5) to a power with respect to a relevant charity do not include references to a power of any person by virtue of being a charity trustee of the charity; but where, under the trusts of the charity, the charity trustees immediately before the reorganisation date include a predecessor council or the holder of an office connected with a predecessor council, those trustees shall instead include the successor council in which the property of the charity would have vested as mentioned in paragraph (5) or, as the case may be, the holder of the corresponding office connected with, or (if there is no such office) the proper officer of, that successor council.

(7) Nothing in this regulation shall affect any power of Her Majesty, the court or any other person to alter the trusts of any charity.

(8) In this regulation—

“charitable purposes” and “charity” have the same meanings as in the Charities Act 2006(1);

“charity trustees”, “company”, “the court” and “trusts” have the same meanings as in the Charities Act 1993(2);

“proper officer” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act 1972(3); and

“relevant charity” means a charity other than a charity which is incorporated by charter or a company.

(1)

2006 c.50. See sections 1 and 2.

(2)

1993 c.10, to which there are amendments not relevant to these Regulations. For the definitions of “charity trustees”, “company”, “the court” and “trusts” see section 97.

(3)

1972 c. 70; for “proper officer”, see section 270(3) of the Act.