Gas Act 1972

1 Hie section to be substituted for section 33 of the [1967 c. 9.] General Rate Act 1967 is as follows:—

“33 British Gas Corporation.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) and without prejudice to subsections (3) and (5) of this section, no premises occupied by the British Gas Corporation (hereafter referred to as "the Corporation") shall be liable to be rated or to be included in any valuation list or in any rate.

(2) The foregoing subsection shall not apply—

(a) to premises used as a dwelling ; or

(b) to premises occupied by the Corporation wholly or mainly for the purposes of an undertaking for the supply of water; or

(c) to premises occupied and used by the Corporation wholly or mainly for the manufacture of plant or gas fittings ; or

(d) to a shop, room or other place occupied and used by the Corporation wholly or mainly for the sale, display or demonstration of apparatus or accessories for use by consumers of gas (any use for the receipt of payments for gas consumed being disregarded); or

(e) subject and without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 12 of Schedule 6 to this Act, to office premises occupied by the Corporation and not situated on operational land of theirs.

(3) For the purposes of the making and levying of a rate for any rating area for any rate period, if in the penultimate year the Corporation—

(a) supplied gas to consumers in that area ; or

(b) manufactured gas in that area; or

(c) produced gas in that area by the application to gas purchased by them of any process not consisting only of purification, or of blending with other gases, or of both purification and such blending,

the Corporation shall be treated as occupying in that area during that rate period a hereditament of a rateable value calculated in accordance with the provisions of Part I of Schedule 6 to this Act.

(4) The hereditament which the Corporation are to be treated as occupying in a rating area by virtue of subsection (3) of this section shall be taken not to be situated in any part of that area in which there are leviable, as an additional item of the rate, expenses which are not leviable in the area taken as a whole.

(5) If the Secretary of State is of opinion that payments by way of rates should be made by the Corporation by virtue of this subsection by reference to any premises occupied and used by them for the reception or liquefaction of gas or the evaporation of gas in a liquid state, being in any case gas purchased by the Corporation, he may, subject to paragraph 13 of Schedule 6 to this Act, make an order designating the premises for the purposes of this subsection and providing for the determination, by such method as may be specified by the order, of a value for the premises for those purposes ; and where such an order is in force, the Secretary of State may direct—

(a) that the Corporation shall, during such period as is specified in the direction, be treated for rating purposes as occupying within the rating area in which the premises designated by the order are situated (and whether or not the Corporation occupy or are treated as occupying any other hereditament in that area) a hereditament of a rateable value equal to the value determined as aforesaid; and

(b) that paragraph 5 of Schedule 6 to this Act shall have effect during the said period as if the Corporation's adjusted basic total of rateable values mentioned in that paragraph were reduced by an amount equal to that value ;

and any direction under this subsection may be varied or revoked by a subsequent direction thereunder.

(6) Subject to paragraph 13 of Schedule 6 to this Act, the Secretary of State may by order provide that, in such of the provisions of this section, the said Schedule 6, or any other enactment relating to rating as may be specified in the order, any reference to the manufacture of gas shall include a reference to such dealings with gas as may be specified by the order.

(7) There shall have effect for the purposes of this section and Part I of Schedule 6 to this Act the supplementary provisions contained in Part II of that Schedule; and for the purposes of this section and that Schedule—

(a) the expression " gas " includes gas in a liquid state, and, without prejudice to the provisions of any order under subsection (6) of this section, the following operations—

(i) the liquefaction of gas, and

(ii) the evaporation of gas in a liquid state,

shall not of themselves be taken to constitute the manufacture of gas or the application of a process to gas ;

(b) the expression " penultimate year ", in relation to a rate period or to a year, means the last but one year before that rate period or year ;

(c) the expressions " office premises " and " operational land " have the meanings respectively assigned by section 32(8) of this Act.”