HC Deb 01 April 1908 vol 187 c502
SIR RANDAL CREMER

I desire to ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, whether the Commissioners, when refusing to renew leases of their property, are under any statutory obligation to compensate publicans, shopkeepers, manufacturers, or any other persons who may be doing a profitable business, at the expiration of their leases; and if they are under no statutory obligation to do so, whether it is customary for the Commissioners to voluntarily compensate those whose business may suffer or be ruined by the non-renewal of their leases.

MR. RUNCIMAN

Except in cases to which the Agricultural Holdings Acts may apply, the Commissioners of Woods are not under statutory obligation to compensate persons to whom they may be unable to grant renewed leases, nor is it customary for them to make such persons compensation.