ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES.

Clause. 1. Powers of county and large borough or urban

district councils to trade or hold land. 2. Sanction of council to any proposed undertaking. 3. Borrowing powers.

Board of Trade to sanction undertakings without

the area of the council. 5. Combination of councils for purposes of Act. 6. Disposal of undertaking. 7. Powers of smaller borough or district and parish

councils. 8. Profits from land and undertakings to go to the

A

B I L L

TO

Extend the Powers of Local Authorities in matters

of Finance and Municipal Trading.

BE

E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, A.D. 1923.

by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present

Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the 5 same, as follows :

1.4(1) Save as in this Act provided, it shall be Powers of lawful for the council of every county and of every county and borough and urban district, having a population according large to the last published census for the time being of twenty urban

borough or 10 thousand or over, including the city of London, and district

every metropolitan borough (herein referred to as the councils to council), to establish or purchase or carry on any busi- trade or ness or undertaking within their area having for its hold land.

purpose either the acquisition of gain or the promotion 15 of commerce, art, science, recreation, charity, or any

other object which might lawfully be established or carried on by a company, limited or unlimited, or association duly incorporated and duly acting under the

provisions of the Companies (Consolidation) Act, 1908. 20 (2) Save as in this Act provided, a council may

purchase or hold land within their area in such quantities and for such purposes as they think fit.

2. No council shall establish or purchase any land, Sanction of business or undertaking which they would not, save for council to 25 this Act, have been otherwise entitled to establish or any propurchase, unless it has been decided so to do by a reso

posed

underlution of a majority of the members of the council in

taking.

A.D. 1923. attendance at a meeting of the council, of which due

notice has been given in the manner provided in section
four of the Borough Funds Act, 1872, for the purposes

of that Act. Borrowing

3. A council may, for the purpose of defraying any 5 powers. costs, charges, or expenses incurred or to be incurred by

them in the establishment, purchase, or carrying on of
any land, business, or undertaking under this Act, from
time to time borrow, in the case of a county council, as
for the purposes of the Local Government Act, 1888, 10
and, in the case of a council of a county borough, borough,
or urban district, as for the purposes of the Public Health
Act, 1875. Provided that the sanction of the Board of
Trade shall be substituted for the sanction of the Local
Government Board in those Acts, and when the total 15
debt of any council, after deducting the amount of any
sinking fund, exceeds, or if the proposed loan is borrowed,
will exceed the amount of one quarter of the annual
rateable value of the rateable property in the area of the
council, ascertained according to the standard or basis 20
for the rates of the council, the amount shall not be
borrowed, except in pursuance of a Provisional Order

made by the Board of Trade and confirmed by Parliament. Board of

4. The Board of Trade may, by Provisional Order, Trade to authorise any council, under such conditions as the 25

Board of Trade may prescribe, to establish or purchase under

or carry on any business or undertaking, or to purchase
takings
without the or hold land outside the area of any such council when,
area of the in the opinion of the Board of Trade, it is necessary or
council. desirable in the interests of any business or under- 30

taking carried on, or to be carried on, by a council within
their area that they should establish or purchase and
carry on a business or undertaking or purchase or hold
land without their area.

sanction

Combina

5. Any two or more councils may, under such 35 tion of

conditions as may be mutually agreed upon, jointly councils for establish, purchase, or carry on a business or undertaking purposes of Act.

or purchase or hold land under this Act. Disposal of

6. A council shall not, without the sanction of the under- Board of Trade, sell or lease for a longer period than 40 taking

seven years, any land, business, or undertaking estab-
lished or purchased or carried on under this Act.