§ MR. YOUNGER (Ayr Burghs)To ask the Prime Minister whether, under under the Licensing Bill, a' licence holder holding a long lease of on-licensed premises at a rack-rent will, on the expiration of the time-limit, continue liable to pay such rent although the licence has terminated; and whether in the event of the said licensee obtaining a re-grant of the licence as a new licence under Clause 3 (1), he will have to pay the monopoly value of the licence, although that value is already included in the rent he is paying under the covenants of the lease.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) The question is one which depends upon the terms of the particular contract between the parties to the lease, and on the legal construction of such contract, upon which I am not in a position to advise. In view of the long notice which it is proposed should be given of the intention of Parliament to secure the monopoly value to the State, I doubt whether, in practice, any cases of hardship such as are contemplated by the Question will arise.