THE BUDGET OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.
Till, London County Council has again given public proof that it intends to comport itself as a business body. At each new meeting the wild talk grows less and less, and the current of reason and common-sense stronger. At first, people pessimistically inclined, fancied that the Council was going to model itself on an Irish Board of Guardians, and occupy its time with impotent resolutions dealing with party politics, or frothy disquisitions on abstract Jacobinism. Fortunately, however, these gloomy forebodings have been shown to be groundless. The noisy and tiresome demagogues have sunk into the background, and statesmen like Lord Lingen and Sir Thomas Farrer are seen to be the men who wield the motive-power of the Council. As might have been expected among an assembly of middle-class Englishmen, the business ideal of getting something done and of refraining from talking about what confessedly cannot be done, is going to have its way, and the Council will very speedily settle in earnest to the hard work of municipal administration.
The sitting of Tuesday last, which was chiefly concerned with the consideration of the estimates for the coming year, showed fully the workmanlike character of the new governing body of London. Though difficulties con- nected with the handing over of the work by the late Board, with the abolition of the Corn, Wine, and Coal Dues, and with the novel system of Government grants, prevented Lord Lingen's statement from being as full and satisfactory as it doubtless will be when the Council has been a year in power, his speech showed con- clusively that the capital has obtained the services of a Chancellor of the Exchequer of no ordinary ability. If anything is wanted to reconcile the electors to the plan of selecting the Aldermen, it is to be found in the fact that without it the Metropolis would have lost one of its most useful servants. The chief difficulty encountered in the framing of the estimates for the financial year which begins on April 1st, was occasioned by the Corn, Wine, and Coal Dues ceasing to be payable in July. The drying-up of this source of revenue, which amounted to £320,000, will certainly necessitate an increase of the rates, probably by 4d. in the pound. It is true that the Council will be entitled to certain Government payments which were not received by the Board of Works ; but these are by no means sufficient to meet the deficit, and it will, we imagine, be found imprudent to levy a rate lower than 121d. The manner in which the money required to meet the demands of Lord Lingen and his Committee is to be levied has, however, not yet come before the Council, and we shall, therefore, deal rather with matters connected with the Esti- mates than with the question of taxation. The Chairman of the Finance Committee has certainly nothing to complain of in regard to the property which is to bear the burdens he imposes. The annual rateable value of the County of London, including the City of London, amounts to no less a sum than £31,586,561—an area taxable for most, but not for all purposes—while that of the smaller contributory area, excluding the City, is as high as £27,706,984. Upon the dwellers in the houses, whose rents make up this valua- tion, the County Council can impose, through the rates, fiscal burdens to any extent necessary. So long as the money raised is not expended on objects unlawful or ultra vireo, its rating powers are absolutely unlimited. The rates are not, however, the only source of income belonging to the Metropolitan Parliament. The debtor side of its balance-sheet is made up of a number of curious items. Bodies so different as the Treasury, the Phcenix Fire Office, and the Lambeth Vestry, all figure as its con- tributories. To begin with, the Imperial Government pays over to it receipts both from the duties on local taxation licences collected in the county, and from the Probate-duty grant, as well as a sum payable in respect of the Fire Brigade. Then various local bodies pay interest on loans made to them by the Council, or rather, by its ancestor, the Metropolitan Board of Works. Again, the neighbouring counties and certain of the vestries pay smaller sums in respect of special improvements made or bridges built by the same body. Another source of revenue is to be found in the fees paid under various Acts. Lastly, and in addition to the inevitable "miscellaneous income" which figures in the accounts of all public bodies, the Council derives a large sum from the landed property of which it is the owner. It must be curious for some of the Councillors and Aldermen to reflect that they are, in their corporate capacity, among the most bloated of the London landlords. Their ground-rents amount to all but £80,000 a year, while the property which is being created for them by the unearned increment, and which will be theirs when their eighty years' leases fall in, is almost " beyond the dreams of avarice." The actual figures given by Lord Lingen in regard to the Council's income, since they are of great interest to all Londoners, may be quoted in detail. The Council will receive :- From the Exchequer for Licences ...
..6855,256 From Interest on Loans ... 390,620 From Rent 79,355 From sundry small receipts ... 13,840 From Sums due on Account of the Fire Brigade 38,792
The figures of the expenditure side may also be quoted from Lord Lingen's speech. They are :- For Ordinary Expenditure ... X599,992
For Interest on Debt ... ... 965,169 For Redemption of Debt... ... ... 410,944 For Management of Loans, Taxes, &c. ... 11,374 For Fire Brigade Charges 130,701
The balance in the hands of the Council is £74,180. In view of these figures, and taking into consideration also the fact that a large portion of the Government grant will have to be handed over to the subordinate poor law authorities, Lord Lingen calculates that a sum of £1,618,654 will have to fall on the rates. Of this, £1,398,918 will, it appears, be leviable upon the whole County of London, including the City, and an additional amount of £219,737 upon the Metropolitan district, excluding the City. The details as to the indebtedness of the Council are extremely favourable to the credit of that body. Nominally, its debt consists of a sum of a little over £28,000,000, of which £17,000,000 pays 32 per cent., and is redeemable in 1927, and £11,000,000 pays 3 per cent., and can be paid off in 1941. The Three-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock stands at £112, and the Three per Cent. at £104. Twenty-eight millions would, no doubt, be a large sum even for London to owe, considering the share of the Imperial debt which each Londoner bears. It must be remembered, however, that the amount owed to its stockholders by the Council is, to use Lord Lingen's phrase, not " the millstone it seems. In the first place, a very large portion of it is covered by the amounts for which the various Metropolitan local bodies are indebted to the Council. Again, a very con- siderable sum has to be balanced against the ground-rents and other extremely valuable landed property possessed by the County of London. In this way, about eleven millions may be written off, and the net debt will therefore be found in reality to amount to not more than £17,000,000, —a sum by no means too heavy for a city whose in- habitants number five millions, and whose houses and the property they contain are insured against fire for over £740,000,000. The resolution which concluded Lord Lingen's statement, declared that in the half-year ending on September 30th a sum of £944,215 should be raised on the rates. This proposal was accepted, and we may therefore presume that a rate as high as that indicated by us above will have to be raised. Such was the opinion of one of the speakers in the discussion that followed the financial statement, and there seems little reason to doubt its accuracy.
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