RATES IN BRITAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 27, 29 December 1932, Page 6

RATES IN BRITAIN.

Colossal figures concerning the rate payments in England and Whiles were given in an address recently by Dr William A. Robson, lecturer in industrial and administrative law at the London School of Economics, to an important gathering of local government officers. His figures, which can be accepted as accurate, show how rapid has the progress been in effecting rating relief in a country whose local government services became an incubus that threatened to paralyse several industries which were faced with stern competition from foreign rivals. The amount of rates collected in England and Wales for the year ended March 31 last, Dr Robson said, totalled to £148,000,000, levied on property whose assessable value was £265,235,000. That is to say, more than half the assessable value was levied—a staggering figure. The position was not so bad as it had been previously, however, the rates levied being £1,000,000 less than in the previous year—and the reduction since 1928 was not less than £18,000,000. This reduction is not in any way attributed to the process of derating introduced by the Government, but is the result of a general cumulative effort by local administrators to relieve the ratepayer. Rates have been gradually falling during the past five years. In 1928 the at r erage was 12s 10id in the pound, and by 1932 it had fallen to 11s lfd. During the same period the average amount collected per head of population fell from £4 4s lOd to £3 14s Id. In this connection, also, Dr Robson made reference to a fallacy which too often is allowed to receive credence. It was highly misleading, he said, to take the mere poundage rate as an indication whether or not a local authority was spending heavily. One borough which he cited had a rate of only 9s 7d compared with 16s in another borough not far distant, and on the face of it the former was much less extravagant than the latter. But it was to be found that the seemingly low rated borough had a rateable value of over £3,000,000, equal to £lB Is per head of the population, while the other had a rateable value of only £834,993, equal to £7 10s per head. The figures are particularly interesting in view of the fact that in New Zealand there is a wholehearted desire by those competent to sum up the economic position for a lowering of general rates in order that industry, both primary and otherwise, may be given that little more freedom which encourages enterprise.