The Problem of Valuation for Rating

Abstract

THIS paper is the second part of a study of the incidence and effects of local government taxation, the first part of which, "Standards of Local Expenditure", has already appeared and the third of which will round off and complete a work of great interest and considerable importance for those who are, or shall be, occupied in local planning and reconstruction. It may well be the most significant of the three; for it examines and discusses the key problem of local finance—the variation in the burden of rates from one area to another due to the absence of uniformity in the standards employed for valuing rateable property. It is an old problem, the essentials of which were being studied by a Departmental Committee on Valuation for Rating set up in 1938 which had not completed its task at the outbreak of war. The authors were fortunate in having been permitted access to returns collected for the use of this Committee. They are, in consequence, able to offer reliable evidence confirming conclusions hitherto based on surmise or impression only.

The Problem of Valuation for Rating

By J. R. Hicks U. K. Hicks C. E. V. Leser. (National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Occasional Papers No. 7.) Pp. vii + 96. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1944.) 7s. 6d. net.