Most of the work of local authorities is transacted through committees and sub-committees, some of which are obligatory or statutory committees, such as the statu tory finance, valuation, education, agricultural, housing, maternity and child welfare, insurance, committees of the county or county borough council, while others are standing committees for various purposes, as roads and bridges, weights and measures, parks and baths, together with the executive or joint purposes com mittee. The transfer of the poor law to the county and county borough councils will entail the formation of a public assistance committee. The co-optation of persons who may or may not be elected persons to local government committees is either permis sible or obligatory by statute. Thus the education and maternity and child welfare committees must include women, and an allot ments committee must appoint representatives of the allotment holders. It is usual, however, where powers of co-option are being conferred, to provide that a majority of the members shall be members of the appointing authority; but in the case of a county educational committee, the county council have powers to de termine otherwise. Councils may not, however, delegate to a committee their powers of raising money either by rates or loans.
Details of the particular services administered by local authorities may be studied under their respective headings, such as poor law, housing and town planning, public health, education, police, pensions, etc. (qq.v.). The group of public health services governed by regulations under the general Public Health Acts, or in some cases the subject of special acts, comprise medical services, including maternity and child welfare and the provision of hospitals, sanatoria and dispensaries, etc. ; the administration of the Midwives Act ; street cleansing and the collection and disposal of house-refuse, sewerage and sewage dis posal; the provision of baths and wash houses, parks, pleasure grounds and open spaces; the administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs acts.
Except for certain ancient charter privi leges, local authorities possess no powers save such as are ex pressly devolved upon them by statute. Such powers may be either mandatory or permissive, being dependent in the latter case on the so-called "adoptive" acts, or the adoptive clauses of general acts, which come into force only when the local authority so resolves. Examples of parochial and sanitary adoptive acts are those relating to the provision of baths and wash-houses, public libraries, allotments, open spaces, museums and gymnasia, ceme teries and crematoria, as well as a number of permissive powers under the various Public Health Acts of 189o, 1907, and 1925. In other cases special powers may be conferred upon an individual authority, as with regard to certain forms of trading or finance, by order of a central department under parliamentary sanction, or resting on a local or private act promoted by the authority con cerned. Among the public utility or trading services generally permitted are such as have to do with transport, and water, gas and electricity supplies. Local authorities are also subject, under
the same statutory conditions, to the supervision of certain of the central departments, the department chiefly concerned, both as regards local government administration and finance, being the Ministry of Health. Such control may take the form of detailed regulations concerning administrative arrangements under general powers already conferred, approval of the by-laws made by local authorities and of their powers of borrowing and spending, with audit of their accounts and power of disallowance and sur charge where such expenditure is not approved, as well as the maintenance of a certain minimum standard of efficiency in the administration of local public services. The by-laws made by a local authority must also come within the scope of a general power already conferred by statute, and can only interpret, and in detail extend or apply, such powers. The periodical revision of local authorities' by-laws is undertaken by the central depart ment concerned, who also for this purpose from time to time issue series of model by-laws.
Local Finance.—The basis of local finance is the public rate, supplemented by loans, national grants in aid, and various fees, tolls, rents, etc., accruing from local government property or serv ices. Local taxation is levied by means of a separate rate for each rating area upon the occupiers (in England and Wales) of all real or immovable property. The amount of the levy is determined by the rate per f of the annual rental value of such property neces sary to meet the deficit of local expenditure. For the changes in the basis of local rates and in the allotment of Exchequer grants see the paragraph on Derating in 1928-29 below. The new rat ing authorities are the county borough, borough and urban, and rural district councils, and instead of special rates for different purposes there is to be, as far as possible, a "general" or consol idated rate for each area. (See further RATE ; and TAXATION, LOCAL.) Local authorities' receipts from all sources, together with the loans for capital works, may be set out as follows: The increase in the total Exchequer grants at 1924-25 over 1913-14, viz., £58,911,827, was on account of : agricultural rates and public health, about two millions each ; police, six millions; housing, seven and a half millions ; highways and bridges, '21 mil lions; and elementary and higher education 21 millions and four millions respectively. Receipts from public rates, 1173,456,00o (provisional summary) for the whole of England and Wales in the year 1927-28, shows a further advance of 22% over 1924-25. On an estimated population of 39,290,000 (1927) this gives an aver age amount of local rates per head of population of 14 8s., and an average rate per 1 of assessable value of 13s. 5d., ranging from under ios. in a small number of towns to between 20S. and 3os. in 66 rating areas (other than rural districts), while seven Welsh authorities exceeded 3os.