b'Section 3 of the 2011 Act contains the charging powers and the limitations that apply. The general power confers a power to charge where: (1)a local authority provides a service to a person otherwise than for a commercial purpose; (2)the service is provided to the person in exercise of the general power. The general power confers power to charge only if: (a)the service is not one that a statutory provision requires the authority to provide to the person, (b)the person has agreed to the service being provided, and (c)ignoring this section and section 93 of the 2003 Act, the authority does not have the power to charge for providing the service. The general power is subject to a duty to secure that, taking one financial year with another, the income from charges does not exceed the costs of provision. As with section 93 of the 2003 Act, the power to charge for things done in exercise of the general power is not a power to make a profit from those activities. Several cases commented upon in Part B of this work are a salutary reminder that, despite the recent introduction of the general powers of competence under the 2011 Act, in the case of charging regimes introduced by local authorities, the legal position for imposing such charges and how those charges are assessed and calculated on a cost recovery basis must be thoroughly understood and investigated to comply with the common law principles laid down by the courts and the precise legislative code permitting such charges to be levied. These principles include the fact that a public body must exercise a statutory power for the purpose for which the power was conferred by Parliament, and not for any unauthorised purpose. An unauthorised purpose may be laudable in its own right, yet still unlawful. The issue is not whether or not the public body has acted in the public interest, but whether it has acted in accordance with the purpose for which the statutory power was conferred. Where a statutory power is exercised both for the purpose for which it was conferred and for some other purpose, the public body will have acted unlawfully unless the authorised purpose was its dominant purpose.Trading and pursuit of commercial purpose 6.6 Section 4 of the 2011 Act contains the limitations on doing things for commercial purpose in exercise of the general power. Where, in exercise of the general power, a local authority does things for a commercial purpose, the authority must do them through a company. A local authority may not, in the exercise of the general power do things for a commercial purpose in relation to a person if a statutory provision requires the authority to do those things in relation to the person.70'