Edison First Power Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary Of State For Environment, Transport & Regions

The other system is referred to as local non-domestic rating, and is governed by sections 41 to 51 of the 1988 Act. The valuation of hereditaments in England for this purpose is the responsibility of the Valuation Officer. The amounts of the values of each of the hereditaments are set out (separately for each hereditament) for each day in the local rating list for each district local authority area. The valuation officer is under a duty to "maintain" the local list, and to prepare a new list in every fifth year, and provision for alteration is made in regulations.

The contents of a central non-domestic rating list are provided for by s 53. With a view to securing "the central rating en bloc of certain hereditaments", the Secretary of State may make regulations designating a person and prescribing in relation to him one or more descriptions of relevant non domestic hereditaments (s 53(1)). Where the regulations so require (as they do in this case), the central list must show the name of the designated person and against that name -

For the purposes of the central list for the period beginning on 1 April 1995, the Secretary of State exercised his powers of designation and prescription by means of The Central Rating Lists Regulations 1994 (SI 1994 No. 3121) ["the 1994 Regulations"]. In respect of electricity supply hereditaments, he designated Powergen and prescribed, in relation to Powergen - "hereditaments (other than excepted hereditaments) wholly or mainly used for the purposes of the generation of electrical power or for ancillary purposes" (reg. 5(1), Schedule Part 2).

The reasoning of that case was treated by Auld J as applicable to paragraph 3 of Schedule 6, in R v Secretary of State for the Environment, ex p British Telecommunications Plc [1991] RA 307, although not there in the context of alleged "double assessment". He said:

"The whole purpose of para 3 of sch 6 is to free [the Secretaries of State] from the normal mode of rating valuation where he so orders. It imposes no restraint upon the selection and form of substitute for that mode save that they must specify it or prescribe rules for its determination, and the whole Order is subject to approval by affirmative resolution in each House of Parliament. It is hard to see how the Secretary of State can be said to have stepped outside "the four corners" of the Act... (p 330)