Office of Public Sector Information
PART IX continued
(2) For the purposes of those sections in their application to England and Wales, each of the following is a relevant authority—
(a) a county council;
(b) a district council;
(c) a London borough council;
(d) the Common Council of the City of London;
(e) the Council of the Isles of Scilly;
(f) a fire authority constituted by a combination scheme under the [1947 c. 41.] Fire Services Act 1947;
(g) a combined police authority established by an amalgamation scheme under the [1964 c. 48.] Police Act 1964;
(h) an authority established under section 10 of the [1985 c. 51.] Local Government Act 1985 (waste disposal authorities);
(i) a joint authority established by Part IV of that Act (police, fire services, civil defence and transport);
(j) an authority or board constituted a port health authority at any time by an order under section 2 of the [1984 c. 22.] Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984;
(k) a joint or special planning board constituted for a National Park by an order under paragraph 1 or paragraph 3 of Schedule 17 to the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972; and
(l) the Broads Authority.
(3) For the purposes of those sections in their application to Scotland, each of the following is a relevant authority—
(a) a regional council,
(b) a district council,
(c) an islands council,
(d) a port local authority or joint port local authority constituted under section 172 of the [1897 c. 38.] Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897,
(e) a joint board or joint committee within the meaning of section 235(1) of the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, and
(f) a water development board within the meaning of section 109(1) of the [1980 c. 45.] Water (Scotland) Act 1980.
(4) The Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument provide for any other body to be, or for a body to cease to be, a relevant authority for the purposes of those sections; and a statutory instrument containing an order under this subsection shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
(5) In those sections “prescribed” means prescribed by the regulations concerned.
(6) Before exercising any power to make regulations under section 150 or section 151 above, the Secretary of State shall consult—
(a) as respects England and Wales, such representatives of local government, and
(b) as respects Scotland, such associations of local authorities,
as appear to him to be appropriate.
(7) This section and sections 150 and 151 above shall come into force at the expiry of the period of two months beginning on the day this Act is passed.
(1) In section 65 of the [1984 c. 27.] Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (powers and duties of highways authorities and roads authorities as to placing of traffic signs) after subsection (3) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(3A) No charge may be made—
(a) in England and Wales, by a highway authority which is the council of a county, metropolitan district or London borough or the Common Council of the City of London, or
(b) in Scotland, by a local roads authority,
with respect to the exercise of their power under subsection (1) above to permit a traffic sign to be placed on or near any road in their area if—
(i) the sign conveys information of a temporary nature or is otherwise intended to be placed only temporarily; and
(ii) the sign is to be placed by a body which is prescribed for the purposes of this subsection as being a body appearing to the Secretary of State to be representative of the interests of road users or any class of road users.”
(2) Subsection (1) above does not apply in any case where, before this section comes into force, the payment of a charge has been agreed.
(1) For subsections (2) to (5) of section 8 of the [1964 c. 75.] Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (exceptions to restrictions on charging for library facilities) there shall be substituted the following subsections—
“(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) below, the Minister may by regulations—
(a) authorise library authorities to make charges for such library facilities made available by them as may be specified in the regulations; and
(b) make such provision as regards charges by library authorities for library facilities, other than provision requiring the making of charges, as he thinks fit.
(3) Nothing in any regulations under this section shall authorise any charges to be made by a library authority for lending any written material to any person where—
(a) it is the duty of the authority under section 7(1) above to make facilities for borrowing available to that person;
(b) the material is lent in the course of providing such facilities to that person on any library premises;
(c) the material is lent in a form in which it is readable without the use of any electronic or other apparatus; and
(d) that person is not a person who has required any such apparatus to be used, or made available to him, for putting the material into such a form in order that he may borrow it;
but this subsection shall not prevent any regulations under this section from authorising the making of charges in respect of the use of any facility for the reservation of written materials or in respect of borrowed materials which are returned late or in a damaged condition.
(4) Nothing in any regulations under this section shall authorise any charges to be made by a library authority for making facilities available for any person to do any of the following on any library premises, that is to say—
(a) reading the whole or any part of any of the written materials for the time being held by the authority in a form in which they are readable without the use of any electronic or other apparatus or in microform;
(b) consulting (whether or not with the assistance of any such apparatus or of any person) such catalogues, indexes or similar articles as are maintained, in any form whatever, exclusively for the purposes of that authority’s public library service.
(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2) above, the power to make regulations under this section shall include power—
(a) to confer a discretion as to the amount of any charge made under the regulations;
(b) to provide for such a discretion to be exercisable subject to such maximum amount or scale of maximum amounts as may be specified in or determined under the regulations;
(c) to require library authorities to take such steps as may be specified or described in the regulations for making the amounts of their charges for library facilities known to the public;
(d) to make such other incidental provision and such supplemental, consequential and transitional provision as the Minister thinks necessary or expedient; and
(e) to make different provision for different cases, including different provision in relation to different persons, circumstances or localities.
(5A) The power to make regulations under this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument; and no regulations may be made under this section unless a draft of them has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.”
(2) After subsection (6) of that section there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(7) In this section—
“library premises” means—
any premises which are occupied by a library authority and are premises where library facilities are made available by the authority, in the course of their provision of a public library service, to members of the public;
any vehicle which is used by a library authority for the purpose of providing such a service and is a vehicle in which facilities are so made available;
“the Minister” means—
in relation to library authorities whose areas are in England, the Lord President of the Council; and
in relation to library authorities whose areas are in Wales, the Secretary of State;
and
“written material” means—
any book, journal, pamphlet or other similar article; or
any reprographic copy (within the meaning of the [1988 c. 48.] Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) of any article falling within paragraph (a) above or any other reproduction of such an article made by any means whatever.”
(3) This section shall come into force on such day as the Lord President of the Council and the Secretary of State, acting jointly, may by order made by statutory instrument appoint; and different days may be so appointed for different provisions or for different purposes.
(1) In any case where—
(a) an emergency or disaster occurs involving destruction of or danger to life or property, and
(b) as a result, one or more local authorities incur expenditure on, or in connection with, the taking of immediate action (whether by the carrying out of works or otherwise) to safeguard life or property, or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience, in their area or among its inhabitants,
the Secretary of State may establish a scheme under this section for the giving of financial assistance to those authorities in respect of that expenditure.
(2) Financial assistance given pursuant to a scheme under this section shall take the form of grants paid by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury and, subject to that, the terms and conditions of a scheme shall be such as the Secretary of State considers appropriate to the circumstances of the particular emergency or disaster concerned.
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2) above, a scheme under this section may—
(a) make the payment of grants conditional upon the making of claims of a description specified in the scheme;
(b) make provision with respect to the expenditure qualifying for grant and the rates and amounts of grants;
(c) make provision in certain specified circumstances for the repayment of any grant, in whole or in part; and
(d) make different provision for different local authorities or descriptions of authority and for different areas.
(4) In the application of this section to England and Wales, any reference to a local authority is a reference to—
(a) a county council;
(b) a district council;
(c) a London borough council;
(d) the Common Council of the City of London;
(e) the Council of the Isles of Scilly;
(f) the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District; or
(g) a joint authority established by Part IV of the [1985 c. 51.] Local Government Act 1985, other than a metropolitan county passenger transport authority.
(5) In the application of this section to Scotland, any reference to a local authority is a reference to—
(a) a regional council;
(b) a district council;
(c) an islands council; or
(d) a joint board or joint committee within the meaning of the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
(6) The reference in subsection (1)(b) above to expenditure incurred by a local authority includes, in the case of an authority in England and Wales, expenditure incurred in defraying, or contributing towards defraying, expenditure incurred by a parish or community council.
(7) This section shall come into force on 1st April 1990.
(1) In section 138 of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 (powers of principal councils with respect to emergencies or disasters) after subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(1A) If a principal council are of the opinion that it is appropriate to undertake contingency planning to deal with a possible emergency or disaster which, if it occurred,—
(a) would involve destruction of or danger to life or property, and
(b) would be likely to affect the whole or part of their area,
they may incur such expenditure as they consider necessary on that planning (whether relating to a specific kind of such possible emergency or disaster or generally in relation to possible emergencies or disasters falling within paragraphs (a) and (b) above).”
(2) In subsection (3) of that section—
(a) for the words from the beginning to “authorise” there shall be substituted “Nothing in this section authorises”; and
(b) for the words “the power conferred by that subsection is” there shall be substituted “the powers conferred by subsections (1) and (1A) above are”.
(3) At the end of the section there shall be added the following subsections—
“(5) With the consent of the Secretary of State, a metropolitan county fire and civil defence authority and the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority may incur expenditure in co-ordinating planning by principal councils in connection with their functions under subsection (1) above.
(6) In this section “contingency planning” means the making, keeping under review and revising of plans and the carrying out of training associated with the plans.”
(1) In any case where, by virtue of any enactment, the Secretary of State has a power or duty to make to a local authority any annual or other periodic payments by way of contribution, grant or subsidy towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by the local authority, the Secretary of State—
(a) may determine to commute any such payments which would otherwise fall due on or after 1st April 1990 either into a single payment or into such number of payments (being less than would otherwise be payable) as he considers appropriate; and
(b) may, if he thinks it appropriate, pay to the Public Works Loans Commissioners the whole or any part of any single or other payment determined under paragraph (a) above so as to reduce or extinguish such debt (whether then due or not) of the local authority to those Commissioners as the Secretary of State thinks fit.
(2) The amount required to reduce or extinguish a debt as mentioned in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) above shall be such as may be determined by the Public Works Loans Commissioners and where, by virtue of that paragraph, only part of a commuted payment is paid to those Commissioners, the balance shall be paid to the local authority concerned.
(3) Subsection (1) above applies whether the annual or other periodic payments began, or would otherwise begin, before, on or after the passing of this Act and applies notwithstanding anything in any enactment requiring the payments to be made over a period of twenty years or any other specified period.
(4) A single or other payment falling to be made by virtue of subsection (1) above is in this section referred to as a “commuted payment” and the calculation of the amount of any commuted payment shall be such as appears to the Secretary of State to be appropriate.
(5) In any case where the amount of any annual or other periodic payment such as is mentioned in subsection (1) above is, at the passing of this Act, calculated by reference to a rate of interest which varies from time to time, the Secretary of State may substitute a fixed rate of interest.
(6) In this section “local authority”, as respects England and Wales, means any of the following—
(a) a county council;
(b) a district council;
(c) a London borough council;
(d) the Common Council of the City of London;
(e) the Council of the Isles of Scilly;
(f) the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District;
(g) a police authority constituted under section 2 of the [1964 c. 48.] Police Act 1964 or a combined police authority established by an amalgamation scheme under that Act;
(h) a joint authority established by Part IV of the [1985 c. 51.] Local Government Act 1985; and
(i) a residuary body established under Part VII of that Act;
and, as respects Scotland, means a regional, islands or district council or a joint board or joint committee within the meaning of section 235(1) of the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.
(7) If, after a commuted payment has been made to a local authority or to the Public Works Loans Commissioners, it appears to the Secretary of State that the payment was smaller or greater than it should have been (whether by virtue of a miscalculation, the occurrence of any event, the failure to comply with any condition or otherwise) the Secretary of State may, as the case may require,—
(a) make a further payment to the authority concerned or to those Commissioners; or
(b) require the repayment or payment to him by that authority of such sum as he may direct.
(8) Without prejudice to the operation of the preceding provisions of this section, with respect to—
(a) any contribution in respect of an expense incurred on or after 1st April 1990; and
(b) so much of any contribution in respect of an expense incurred before that date as has not been made before that date,
section 569 of the [1985 c. 68.] Housing Act 1985 (contribution by Secretary of State to certain expenses incurred by local housing authorities) shall be amended as follows—
(i) in subsection (2) (which relates to contributions as annual payments) for the words following “shall be” there shall be substituted the words “equal to the relevant percentage of the amount of the expense incurred”; and
(ii) subsection (5) (which relates to annual loan charges) shall cease to have effect.
(9) Without prejudice to the generality of section 230 of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act [1973 c. 65.] 1972 or section 235(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (local authorities' duty to make reports and returns to the Secretary of State), every local authority and the Inner London Education Authority shall furnish to the Secretary of State such information as he may by notice in writing reasonably require for the purposes of this section and, if the notice so specifies, any such information shall be certified and audited in such manner and supplied not later than such date and in such form as may be so specified.
(10) Nothing in this section applies in relation to any payments to which, under Part IV of Schedule 15 to the Housing Act 1985 (superseded contributions etc.: town development subsidy), provision already exists for the commutation of payments.
(1) In subsection (2) of section 9 of the [1975 c. 76.] Local Land Charges Act 1975, the words “A requisition under this section must be in writing, and” shall be omitted.
(2) In subsection (2) of section 14 of that Act after the word “include” there shall be inserted “(a)”, and at the end of that subsection there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—
“(b) power to make rules providing for the use of electronic means in the making of requisitions for, and in the issue of, official search certificates, notwithstanding subsection (3) of section 231 of the Local Government Act 1972 (service of documents on local authorities) provided that—
(i) such rules shall not provide that a requisition is duly made by electronic means, except where the local authority to whom it is made consents to the use of those means, or that an official search certificate is duly issued by electronic means, except where the person requiring the search consents to the use of those means; and
(ii) such consent may be given either generally or in relation to a specified document or description of documents, and either before or after the making of the requisition or the issue of the certificate; and
(c) power to make rules modifying the application of sections 10 and 11 above in cases where—
(i) the rules provide for the making of a requisition for, or the issuing of, an official search certificate by electronic means, and
(ii) there has been any error or failure in those means.”
(1) Section 211 of the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (provision for default of local authority) shall be amended in accordance with this section.
(2) After subsection (2) there shall be inserted the following subsections—
“(2A) If the Secretary of State or appropriate Minister—
(a) is about to make an order under subsection (2) above; and
(b) is satisfied that the failure to which the order relates has continued or recurred,
he may, in that order and without any local inquiry, declare the authority to be in default in respect of the continuance or recurrence of the failure and direct them for the purpose of remedying the default to take such steps and within such time or times as may be specified in the order.
(2B) The Secretary of State or appropriate Minister may, in an order under subsection (2) above, notify the local authority that any continuance or recurrence of the failure in respect of which the authority have been declared to be in default happening after the date of the order may be made the subject of an application to the Court of Session under subsection (3A) below.”
(3) After subsection (3) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(3A) If—
(a) a local authority have been notified under subsection (2B) above; and
(b) there has been any such continuance or recurrence as is mentioned in that subsection of the failure to which the notification relates,
the Court of Session may, on the application of the Lord Advocate on behalf of the Secretary of State or appropriate Minister, order specific performance of the functions in respect of which there has been such continuance or recurrence of the failure and do otherwise as to the court appears to be just.”
(1) For the purpose of enabling local authorities in Wales to be known solely by Welsh language names, the provisions of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 specified in Schedule 8 to this Act shall be amended in accordance with that Schedule.
(2) Any reference in the provisions amended by Schedule 8 to this Act to a specially convened meeting of a council is a reference to a meeting of which notice is given as required by Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act 1972 but with the substitution for the words “three clear days” in paragraph 4(2) of that Schedule (principal councils) or, as the case may be, paragraph 26(2) (community councils) of “fourteen clear days”.
(1) At the end of section 9 of the [1985 c. 68.] Housing Act 1985 (provision of housing accommodation) there shall be added the following subsection—
“(5) Nothing in this Act shall be taken to require (or to have at any time required) a local housing authority itself to acquire or hold any houses or other land for the purposes of this Part.”
(2) At the end of section 2 of the [1987 c. 26.] Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (powers of local authorities to provide housing accommodation) there shall be added the following subsection—
“(6) Nothing in this Act shall be taken to require (or to have at any time required) a local authority itself to acquire or hold any houses or other land for the purposes of this Part.”
In section 24 of the Housing Act 1985 (rents), there shall be added at the end the following subsections—
“(3) In exercising their functions under this section, a local housing authority shall have regard in particular to the principle that the rents of houses of any class or description should bear broadly the same proportion to private sector rents as the rents of houses of any other class or description.
(4) In subsection (3) “private sector rents”, in relation to houses of any class or description, means the rents which would be recoverable if they were let on assured tenancies within the meaning of the Housing Act 1988 by a person other than the authority.”
(1) Section 92 of the Housing Act 1985 (assignment of secure tenancies by way of exchange) shall be amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) below.
(2) At the end of subsection (1) there shall be added the words “or to an assured tenant who satisfies the conditions in subsection (2A)”.
(3) After subsection (2) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(2A) The conditions to be satisfied with respect to an assured tenant are—
(a) that the landlord under his assured tenancy is either the Housing Corporation, Housing for Wales, a registered housing association or a housing trust which is a charity; and
(b) that he intends to assign his assured tenancy to the secure tenant referred to in subsection (1) or to another secure tenant who satisfies the condition in subsection (2).”
(4) In section 117 of the Housing Act 1985 (index of defined expressions for Part IV) before the entry relating to “cemetery” there shall be inserted—
| “assured tenancy | section 622”. |
(1) In Schedule 5 to the [1985 c. 68.] Housing Act 1985 (exceptions to the right to buy), for paragraph 11 (certain dwelling-houses for persons of pensionable age) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“11 (1) The right to buy does not arise if the Secretary of State has determined, on the application of the landlord, that it is not to be capable of being exercised with respect to the dwelling-house.
(2) The Secretary of State shall so determine if, and only if, he is satisfied that the dwelling-house—
(a) is particularly suitable, having regard to its location, size, design, heating system and other features, for occupation by persons of pensionable age, and
(b) was let to the tenant or a predecessor in title of his for occupation by a person of pensionable age (whether the tenant or predecessor or another person).
(3) The Secretary of State shall for the purposes of this paragraph disregard the presence of any feature provided by the tenant or a predecessor in title of his.
(4) An application for a determination under this paragraph shall be made within the period for service of the landlord’s notice under section 124 (notice admitting or denying right to buy).
(5) This paragraph does not apply unless the dwelling-house concerned was first let before 1st January 1990.”
(2) Subsection (1) above does not apply in any case where the tenant’s notice claiming to exercise the right to buy was served before the day on which this section comes into force.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) above, no account shall be taken of any steps taken under section 177 of the [1985 c. 68.] Housing Act 1985 (amendment or withdrawal and re-service of notice to correct mistakes).
(1) In the Housing Act 1985,—
(a) Part VI (repair notices) shall be amended in accordance with Part I of Schedule 9 to this Act;
(b) Part IX (slum clearance) shall be amended in accordance with Part II of that Schedule;
(c) Part XI (houses in multiple occupation) shall be amended in accordance with Part III of that Schedule;
(d) Part XVII (compulsory purchase and land compensation) shall be amended in accordance with Part IV of that Schedule; and
(e) Part XVIII (miscellaneous and general) shall be amended in accordance with Part V of that Schedule.
(2) Part VII of the Housing Act 1985 (improvement notices) shall cease to have effect.
(3) For any financial year beginning after the day appointed for the coming into force of this subsection the following provisions of this section shall have effect in place of sections 312 to 314 of the Housing Act 1985 (slum clearance subsidy); and in those provisions “slum clearance functions” means any of the functions under the provisions of Part IX of that Act relating to—
(a) the demolition, closing or purchase of unfit premises,
(b) the demolition of obstructive buildings, and
(c) clearance areas,
but does not include functions under sections 308 to 311 of that Act (owner’s redevelopment or improvement).
(4) On such conditions as he may determine the Secretary of State may pay slum clearance subsidy to a local housing authority in respect of any financial year for which, applying such method of calculation as may be determined by the Secretary of State, the authority have incurred a loss in connection with the exercise of their slum clearance functions; and the rate or rates of the subsidy and the manner in which it is paid shall be such as may be determined by him.
(5) If for any financial year, applying such method of calculation as is referred to in subsection (4) above, a local housing authority have incurred a surplus in connection with the exercise of their slum clearance functions, the Secretary of State may require the authority to pay to him such sum as he may determine in respect of that surplus, together with interest thereon from such time and at such rate or rates as he may determine.
Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (C. 42)