Explanation
of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873, page 4
III. Gross Estimated Rental.
The column in the Valuation Lists as to the gross estimated
rental is necessarily filled up with more care, as it is the basis upon which
the rateable value is determined. The
amount appearing in the column of gross estimated rental in this Return under
the name of each owner is the aggregate of the amounts appearing under his name
in the various parochial Lists of the county.
It
must, however, always be borne in mind that the amount of the gross estimated
rental as shown in the parish Returns and consequently in this Return, is not
the amount of the rent payable to the person under whose name as owner it
appears, but the amount of the entire rents which the occupying tenants of the
whole property would be presumed to pay to their immediate lessors.
In
the case of purely agricultural land, the column “gross estimated rental” is
intended to show the rent at which the property might reasonably be expected to
let from year to year, the tenant undertaking to pay all usual tenant’s rates
and taxes and tithe commutation rent-charge, if any, and, in the case of
agricultural land, the value contained in this column will probably be found
not to differ widely from the actual rental of the owner.
In
the case of house of mineral property, the case is totally different, and this
column affords no criterion of the rents received by the owners. This is very obvious on land let on building
leases. The rent received by the owner
is, generally speaking, a mere ground rent reserved from the person to whom the
land was originally let, of which no account is contained in the valuation
lists, whilst the rental shown in those lists is the estimated amount of rent
payable by the occupying tenant, to the person from whom he takes the house. The ground landlord may be in the receipt of
a few pounds, whilst the estimated rent of the occupying tenants, which
nevertheless appears in the rental column under the name of the ground
landlord, may be many thousand pounds.
There will be considerable discrepancies
in the Return in respect of the rental of the owners of house property, arising
from the different modes in which the Valuation Lists have been prepared, and
which it has been found quite impossible to correct.
IN SOME CASES all the property
of one ground landlord, with the amount of the rent payable by the occupying
tenants to their intermediate lessors, will appear under the single name of the
ground landlord, and a large rental will appear under his name, very far indeed
exceeding the amount which he himself receives. There must be in the Return several such cases of which the Local
Government Board can have no knowledge ; but five remarkable instances may be
referred to in the cases of Sir John St. Aubyn and Sir L. Palk in Devonshire,
Lord Calthorpe in Warwickshire, and the Duke of Norfolk and Sir John William
Ramsden in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
In
other cases the names of the lessees will have been entered as owners, or the
lessees will have been included in the aggregate number of owners under an
acre, and in these cases the number of owners, according to the definition of
the word “owner” adopted in this Return, will have been unduly increased.
It
is quite impossible, without considerable local knowledge, and a minute
investigation into the returns of town parishes, which would occupy a very long
time, to make the Return actually correct in this respect.
In
like manner, where the land includes a coal mine which is leased to a company,
the gross rental which appears in the parish lists may represent a sum
considerably in excess of the sum which goes into the pockets of the landowner.
There
are other matters in relation to the Return which require to be noticed.
Property
which is not rated does not appear in the parish lists, and consequently not in
this Return.
At
the time when the Return was prepared the following kinds of property were not
rateable :
1. Mines other than coal mines ; and with respect to coal
mines, it must be observed that in those parishes where there are only
underground workings, and no surface occupation with the mine, the valuation
lists do not indicate the particular lands under which the workings are carried
on, and consequently do not show the enhanced value of the land to the owner.
2. Woods, except where they consist of or contain saleable
underwood.
No notice is taken in the Return of any property of these
descriptions.
Waste and Common Land.
There
is great uncertainty as to the lands under this heading. If they yield no profit they are not rated, and
are not included in the valuation lists, and it is only where a parish map or
survey has shown the extent of these lands that the clerk to the guardians or
the parish officers could be expected to state the area accurately. In other cases an estimate, more or less
conjectured, of the actual extent is all the information which could be
obtained.
[Note:
gas and water mains, tolls and dues from markets, bridges, ferries docks
harbours, piers, canals and inland navigation, coal mines in parishes in which the
surface workings are not situate, and Crown property in respect of which no
Parliamentary subvention is paid, are also omitted from the estimated gross
rental in this Return]
FROM
THE foregoing statement it will be seen that the present Return is simply a
compilation from public documents, existing in each parish throughout
England, corrected with such information as the union and parochial officers
might possess, and of which, in the discharge of their public duty, it would be
incumbent upon them to avail themselves whenever they might be required to
prepare fresh valuation lists.
It
can only be considered as professing to furnish the names of the several
persons who, by common repute in each parish, are believed to be the owners of
the separate holdings in respect of which the occupiers are liable to be
assessed to the local rates.
In
some instances the names of the owners may be found to be improperly given, in
some the quantities of the land may be erroneously stated, and in others the
gross estimated rental may represent very inaccurately the rent which is
received by the reputed owner. In
several cases the name of the same person will be found to be entered more than
once in a county, owing to the difficulty of identification.
But,
notwithstanding all the defects which have been adverted to, it is hoped that
the Return will be found fairly to answer the purpose for which it is required,
as showing with proximate accuracy the manner in which the land of the country
is distributed, the names of the reputed owners, and the estimated extent and
rental of the property held by each.
In support of the general accuracy of
the Return it may be stated that the total acreage of England, as given in the
Census Report, from information furnished by the Ordnance Survey Department, is
37,319,221, and the total acreage, as shown by the present Return, is
34,538,158, being a difference of 2,781,063 acres. In the latter, however, the metropolis is not included, and no
account is taken of those waste lands the area of which could not be
ascertained, of woods other than saleable under-woods, of rivers and roads, of
Crown property not let, and of churchyards and other lands not rateable. These circumstances would appear to be
sufficient to account for the discrepancy between the acreage stated in the two
Returns.”
With reference to the number of
reputed owners “it will be seen that the totals are as follows” :-
Number
of owners of one acre and upwards 269,547
Number
of owners below one acre 703,289
Total 972,836
“The
tabulation and detailed examination of this very voluminous and complicated
Return has devolved upon Mr. Thomas Harris of this Department, and in justice
to him it should be added that he has discharged the duty with great care,
attention, and zeal.
John
Lambert”
Secretary
Local
Government Board
22nd July 1875