The Local Government Act 1948 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 26) was an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. It was passed during the Labour government of

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

. 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 in ...

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 to January 20 ...

, 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.Local government since 1945 by Ken Young and Nirmala Rao 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,

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External links

Text of Act as originally enacted
{{Authority control United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1948