The purpose of the Billing Authorities (Anticipation of Precepts) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2014, SI 2014/35, is to enable billing authorities in England making council tax calculations in accordance with Section 31A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) to anticipate a precept from a local precepting authority.  The legislative context is that Sections 73 to 79 of the Localism Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”) made amendments to the calculations which billing authorities, major precepting authorities, and local precepting authorities in England must make to determine their basic amounts of council tax for a financial year. The obligation to calculate a budget requirement for a year was replaced with an obligation to calculate a council tax requirement. Under the new provisions an authority’s council tax requirement for a financial year is the amount the authority requires from council tax alone in order to finance its budget for the year and this amount is used to calculate the authority’s basic amount of council tax. Section 74 of the 2011 Act inserted a new Section 31A into the 1992 Act requiring a billing authority to calculate its council tax requirement each financial year, and Section 32 of the 1992 Act was modified to apply to Wales only rather than to England and Wales. The Regulations make a minor amendment consequential on the changes made by the 2011 Act to update the definition of “calculations” in the Billing Authorities (Anticipation of Precepts) Regulations 1992 in relation to England to refer to the new Section 31A inserted by the 2011 Act.. This will enable billing authorities in England making their calculations in accordance with Section 31A of the 1992 Act to anticipate a precept from a local precepting authority under Section 41 of the 1992 Act if that precept has not been issued in time for their calculations.

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