ABSTRACT
The growth of central control must include some mention of the increasing part played by Exchequer grants in local government finance. Local government finance has been under almost continuous examination and discussion—and is being inquired into by central departments, local authorities and their associations. In the Government’s view ‘improvement of the system of local finance must come from improvements of the system of local taxation which is traditionally the right of local authorities, combined with a radical recasting of the system of grants’. The White Paper on Local Government Finance propounded a new Rate Deficiency Grant. The Rate Deficiency Grant is payable to local authorities in areas where the product of a penny rate is less than the average or standard product of a penny rate for that area. The Association of Municipal Corporations has come out with some proposals for improving the rating system and for obtaining additional sources of local revenue.
