Chapter vii

.)

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I have, I think, now fully established my contention that the rate-rent which would be willingly offered by the tenants of Garden City, in respect of the advantages afforded them, would be amply sufficient, (1) to pay landlord’s rent in the form of interest on debentures; (2) to provide a sinking fund for the entire abolition of landlord’s rent; and (3) to provide for the municipal needs of the town without recourse to any Act of Parliament for the enforcement of rates--the community depending solely on the very large powers it possesses as a landlord.

_N. Revenue-bearing Expenditure._

If the conclusion already arrived at--that the experiment advocated affords an outlet for an extremely effective expenditure of labour and capital--is sound in regard to objects the cost of which is usually defrayed out of rates, that conclusion must, I think, be equally sound in regard to tramways, lighting, water-supply, and the like, which, when carried on by municipalities, are usually made a source of revenue, thus relieving the rate-payer by making his rates lighter.[13] And as I have added nothing to the proposed revenue for any prospective profits on such undertakings, I do not propose to make any estimate of expenditure.

FOOTNOTE:

[13] “Birmingham rates are relieved to the extent of £50,000 a year out of profits on gas. The Electrical Committee of Manchester has promised to pay £10,000 this year to the city fund, in relief of rates out of a net profit of over £16,000.”--_Daily Chronicle_, 9th June, 1897.

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