Page:EB1911 - Volume 16.djvu/977

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FINANCE]
LONDON
  953

The headquarters of the Salvation Army are in Queen Victoria Street, City. There are numerous foreign churches, among which may be mentioned the French Protestant churches in Monmouth Road, Bayswater and Soho Square; the Greek church of St Sophia, Moscow Road, Bayswater; and the German Evangelical church in Montpelier Place, Brompton Road, opened in 1904.  (O. J. R. H.) 

VIII. Finance

In addition to the provisions that have been mentioned above (Section VII.), the London Government Act 1899 simplified administration in two respects. The duties of overseers in London had been performed by most diverse bodies. In some parishes overseers were appointed in the ordinary manner; in others the vestry, by local acts and by orders under the Local Government Act 1894, was appointed to act as, or empowered to appoint, overseers, whilst in Chelsea the guardians acted as overseers. The act of 1899 swept away all these distinctions, and constituted the new borough councils in every case the overseers for every parish within their respective boroughs, except that the town clerk of each borough performs the duties of overseers with respect to the registration of electors.[1] Again, with regard to rates, there were in all cases three different rates leviable in each parish—the poor rate, the general rate and the sewers rate—whilst in many parishes in addition there was a separate lighting rate. From the sewers rate and lighting rate, land, as opposed to buildings, was entitled to certain exemptions. Under the act of 1899 all these rates are consolidated into a single rate, called the general rate, which is assessed, made, collected and levied as the poor rate, but the interests of persons previously entitled to exemptions are safeguarded. Further, every precept sent by an authority in London for the purpose of obtaining money (these authorities include the London County Council, the receiver of the Metropolitan Police, the Central Unemployed Body and the Boards of Guardians) which has ultimately to be raised out of a rate within a borough is sent direct to the council of the borough instead of filtering through other authorities before reaching the overseers. The only exceptions to this rule are: (1) precepts issued by the local government board for raising the sums to be contributed to the metropolitan common poor fund; and (2) precepts issued by poor law authorities representing two or more poor-law unions; in both these cases the precept has of necessity to be first sent to the guardians. The metropolitan borough councils make one general rate, which includes the amount necessary to meet their own expenditure, as well as to meet the demands of the various precepting authorities. There was thus raised in the year 1906–1907 a sum of £15,393,956 (in 1898–1899 the amount was £10,401,441); of this £11,012,424 was for central rates, which was subdivided into £7,930,275 for county services and £3,082,149 for local services, leaving a balance of £4,381,532, strictly local rates. The total local expenditure of London for the year 1906–1907 was £24,703,087 (in 1898–1899 it was only £14,768,757), the balance of £9,761,734 being made up by receipts-in-aid and imperial subventions. This expenditure was divided among the following bodies:

London County Council £9,491,271
Metropolitan Borough Councils 5,009,982
Boards of Guardians 3,587,429
Metropolitan Water Board 2,318,618
Metropolitan Police 1,903,441
City Corporation 1,270,406
Metropolitan Asylums Board 934,463
Central (Unemployed) Body 141,284
Overseers—City of London 34,757
Market Trustees (Southwark) 10,680
Local Government Board—Common Poor Fund 756
  —————
  £24,703,087


(1) Rate and Debt Accounts.
Estimated Income. Estimated Expenditure.
Balances £967,740 Debt (including management) £3,905,135
Receipts in aid of expenditure (local taxation licences   Grants (mostly guardians) 645,913
 and estate duty, beer and spirit duties, &c.) 513,541 Pensions 75,665
Government grants in aid of education 1,515,663 Establishment charges 232,045
Interest on loans advanced to local authorities, &c. 586,065 Judicial expenses 52,515
Rents, &c. 427,767 Services—  
Contributions from revenue-producing undertaking    Main drainage £295,650  
 for interest and repayment of debt 685,948  Fire brigade 263,575  
Miscellaneous 3,633  Parks and open spaces 140,715  
Rate contributions—    Bridges, tunnels, ferry 49,925  
 General, for other than education 2,698,610  Embankments 14,940  
 For education 3,675,694  Pauper lunatics 78,870  
Special 407,946  Inebriates Acts 14,045  
   Coroners 30,925  
   Weights and measures 14,830  
   Gas testing 13,785  
   Building Acts 25,595  
   Diseases of Animals Acts 19,260  
   Miscellaneous 63,060  
    ————  
    £1,025,175  
  Education 4,025,442  
  Steamboats 14,805  
  Works Dept. 12,100 5,889,522
  Parliamentary expenses 22,675
  Miscellaneous 6,214
    —————
    Total expenditure 10,829,684
    Balances 652,923
—————   —————
£11,482,607   £11,482,607
 (2) Revenue Producing Undertakings.
Estimated Income. Estimated Expenditure.
Balances £4,055 Working expenses—  
Receipts—  Working class dwellings £56,060  
 Working class dwellings £173,443    Tramways 1,318,620  
 Tramways 2,089,955    Small Holdings and Allotments 621  
 Small Holdings and Allotments 410    Parks boating 2,965 £1,378,266
 Parks boating 5,100 2,268,908 Renewals 163,828
Transfers 6,214 Reserve 44,557
  Interest on and repayment of debts 685,946
  Transfer in relief of rates (parks boating) 2,000
  Balances 4,580
————   ————
£2,279,177   £2,279,177

The total expenditure was equal to a rate in the pound of 11s. 4.4d.; the actual amount raised in rates was equivalent to a rate of 7s. 1.0d., receipts-in-aid were equivalent to a rate of 3s. 2.5d., and imperial subventions to a rate of 1s. 3.4d. Practically the whole amount contributed towards the support of public local expenditure, and a considerable amount of that contributed to public national expenditure is based on the estimated annual value of the immovable property situated within the county of London, which in 1876 was £23,240,070; in 1886 £30,716,719; in 1896 £35,793,672; and in 1909 £44,666,651. The produce of a penny rate was, in the


  1. Over 200 local acts were repealed by schemes made under the act of 1899.