HC Deb 20 March 1940 vol 358 cc2038-9
Lords Amendment

In page 19, line 6, after "act," insert: and thereafter until the beginning of the said term.

4.40 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Captain McEwen)

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

This matter concerns Scotland perhaps more than England. The active words in it are "from the commencement of the Act." When the Clause was discussed in Committee my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Newbury (Brigadier-General Clifton Brown) stated that it was open to criticism in that it failed to deal with two points both of which are met by the Amendments, the first of which I am now moving being introductory to the others. The Clause as drafted applied only to certain tenancies beginning after the commencement of the Act. It was pointed out that in many cases, particularly in Scotland, landlords and tenants had entered into contracts in anticipation of legislation of the kind being introduced. Accordingly, the Amendments now inserted make the provisions of the Clause retrospective from the date of the commencement of the war applicable to any case where the landlord satisfies an arbitrator, which, in the case of Scotland would be the Land Court, that the contract of tenancy would otherwise have come within the provisions of this Clause. The second defect pointed out was that whereas the Clause applied when an owner of land had been in the habit of letting it for grazing, it did not apply when an owner had himself occupied and grazed the land. The second Amendment of the series therefore deals with this point, as is only reasonable.

Question put, and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments to page 25, line 14, agreed to.