HC Deb 13 February 1933 vol 274 cc675-7

4.40 p.m.

Mr. PYBUS

I beg to move, in page 10, line 31, at the beginning, to insert the words: Subject to the provisions of this Section. This Amendment covers an agreement between the Associated Equipment Company and the Union Surplus Lands Company. When the Clause was settled by the Joint Select Committee it was intended to apply to an agreement between the Associated Equipment Company and the Underground Company relating to the supply of motor vehicles. But there was another agreement between the Associated Equipment Company and the Union Surplus Lands Company, which has been taken over by the board, and that agreement guaranteed a minimum return on the purchase price paid by the Union Surplus Lands Company to the Equipment Company in respect of certain premises. This Amendment is to make quite certain that the Associated Equipment Company is still to have this liability and they are not relieved of it.

Captain STRICKLAND

Does this agreement apply only to the disposal of the site of the omnibus factory at Waltham stow vacated by the Associated Equipment Company?

Mr. PYBUS

I am informed that that is so.

Mr. C. WILLIAMS

Will the Minister tell us if there is any agreement as to price? I assume that before the Minister accepted the Amendment he would go into the details, and it is essential that the House should have the whole of the details.

Mr. PYBUS

The question of the amount of the purchase price does not arise. It is a question of a minimum return on the purchase price paid to the Associated Equipment Company in respect of property and the Associated Equipment Company guarantees that minimum rate to the board.

Mr. WILLIAMS

What is the minimum rate?

Sir KENYON VAUGHAN-MORGAN

Is this a further charge on the resources of the board?

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL

The whole purpose of the Amendment is to provide that it shall not fall upon the board but that the Associated Equipment Company shall remain liable to discharge the burden of this guarantee.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendment made: In page 11, line 20, at the end, insert the words: This Section shall not apply to rights or liabilities arising by virtue or the deed of covenant made the twelfth day of May, nineteen hundred and thirty, between the Equipment Company and the Union Surplus Lands Company, Limited, or any deed of covenant varying or amending the aforementioned deed of covenant.