The Local Government Act 1948 was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It was passed during the Labour government of

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

. This Act provided for general unearmarked grants to be provided to local authorities “as nearly as possible on the basis of financial need.” It established Exchequer Equalisation Grants (EEG) as the new

block grant A block grant is a grant-in-aid of a specified amount from a larger government to a smaller regional government body. Block grants have less oversight from the larger government and provide flexibility to each subsidiary government body in terms ...

for local authorities. As noted by

Ken Young Kenneth George Young FAcSS FRHistS (3 January 1943 – 20 February 2019) was a British political scientist and historian who was Professor of Public Policy at King's College London in its Department of War Studies. Earlier he was instrumental i ...

and

Nirmala Rao Nirmala Rao (born 1959, Hyderabad, India) is a British academic and the current vice chancellor of Krea University. She also served as vice chancellor of the Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh from 1 February 2017 and as Pro-D ...

, these new grants were based on “the ratio between the average rateable value per head in each local authority and the average rateable value per head throughout the country.” The purpose of the EEG formula was to ensure that no local authority would fall below a national minimum of financial resources. Section 132 of the Act allowed local authorities to spend up to the product of a 6d rate for the provision of music, drama, entertainment, and other cultural endeavours. According to

Janet Minihan Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) * Janet (French singer) (1939–2011) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psych ...

, “Section 132 at last eliminated the need for special enabling legislation and gave local authorities uniform opportunities to encourage cultural activities throughout their districts.”To Build a New Jerusalem: the British Labour movement from the 1880s to the 1990s by A.J. Davies

External links

Text of Act as originally enacted

Notes

{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1948