The sewers rate, then, is a local tax required for an independent rather than an aggregate district, and is not levied upon the basis of the poor law.
The assessment of the poor rate, for instance, includes tithes of every kind, that of the sewers rate extends to such tithes only as are in the hands of laymen. Again, the sewers rate embraces some incorporeal hereditaments to which the poor rate does not extend; but stock in trade, which of late years has been specially exempted from the poor rate, was never subject to the sewers rate.
A sewers rate, however, was known as early as the sixth year of Henry VI. (1427), though “commissions” were not instituted till the time of Henry VIII. The Act which now regulates the collection of the funds required for the cleansing, building, repairs, and improvements of the sewers, is 4 and 5 Vict. (1841). This statute gives the “Courts” or “Commissions” of Sewers, power “to tax in the gross” in each parish, &c., all lands, &c., within the jurisdiction of such courts, for the requirements of the public sewerage. This impost is not periodically levied, nor at any stated or even regularly recurring term, but “as occasion requires:” perhaps once in two or three years. It is (with some exceptions, which require no notice) what is commonly called “a landlord’s tax” in the metropolis, that is, the sewers-rate collector must be paid by the occupier of the premises, who, on the production of the collector’s receipt, can deduct the amount from his rent. If this arrangement were meant to convey a notion to the public that the sewers tax was a tax on property—on the capitalist who owns, and not on the tenant who merely occupies—it is a shallow device, for every one must know that the more sewers rate a tenant pays for his landlord, the more rent he must pay to him.
The sewers rate is levied according to the rateable value put upon property by the surveyors and assessors appointed by the Commissioners, who may make the rate “by such ways and means, and in such manner and form, as to them may seem most convenient.” It seems a question yet to be determined whether or not there is a right of appeal against the sewers rate, but the general opinion is that there is no appeal. The rate can be mortgaged by the Commissioners if an advance of money is considered desirable. The maximum of 1s. in the pound on the net annual value of the property was fixed by the Act. The Commissioners have also the power to levy a “special rate” on any district not connected with the general system of sewerage, but which it has been resolved should be so connected; also an “improvement rate,” at a maximum of 10 per cent. on the rack rent, “in respect of works they may judge to be of private benefit,” a provision which has called forth some comments.
The metropolitan sewers rate is now collected in nine districts.
There are at present 42 Commissions or Courts of Sewers throughout England and Wales.
The only return which has yet been prepared of the annual amount assessed and collected under the authority of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, is one presented to the House of Commons in 1843. It includes the sum assessed in four of the eight districts within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Commissioners from 1831 to 1840 inclusive.
| Districts. | Total in the 10 years. | Annual Average. |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | |
| Westminster | 235,397 | 23,5397⁄10 |
| Holborn and Finsbury | 123,317 | 12,3317⁄10 |
| Tower Hamlets | 82,468 | 8,2468⁄10 |
| From East Moulsey, in Surrey, to Ravensbourne, in Kent | 175,137 | 17,5137⁄10 |
| 616,319 | 61,6319⁄10 |
The following amounts were returned to Parliament as that expended in two other of the metropolitan districts in the year 1833:—
| In the City | £17,7182⁄10 |
| Poplar district | 2,7469⁄10 |
| £20,4651⁄10 | |
| Annual average of the four above-mentioned districts | 61,6319⁄10 |
| Yearly total | £82,097 |