§ Viscount HELMSLEYasked the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, what was the practice of the Department with regard to renewals of leases of urban property belonging to the Crown; and whether it was usual to renew the lease at the same ground rent as that originally agreed upon?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe practice of the Commissioners of Woods in granting leases whether on renewal or otherwise, is to require such clear yearly rent to be paid as appears to them to represent the reasonable annual value of the property at the time of arranging for such lease and having regard to the circumstances of the case. If, therefore, the value at the time of arranging for a renewed lease differed from what it was when the original lease was granted, the renewed lease would not be granted at the original rent. Before the grant of a lease the Commissioners are required by the Land Revenue Acts to obtain a sworn certificate from a competent surveyor of the true and fair worth or value of the property.
§ Viscount HELMSLEYIs it the intention of the Government to continue this practice which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has described as blackmail?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEI have already pointed out, in answer to an exactly similar question by the hon. Member for Barkston Ash, that in this case the whole of the profits go to the Crown, not to the private individual.
§ Viscount HELMSLEYAre we to understand that what is blackmail when done by a private individual ceases to be blackmail when done by a public Department?