Clause 18.—(UNEXPENDED BALANCE OF ESTABLISHED DEVELOPMENT VALUE.) (Hansard, 13 July 1954)

§ Mr. H. Macmillan

I beg to move, in page 22, to leave out lines 33 to 43, and to insert: and (b) such fraction of the value of any claim holding whose area includes that land as attaches to that land; and the unexpended balance of established development value of that land immediately after the commencement of this Act (hereafter in this Act referred to in relation to that land 'as its 'original unexpended balance of established development value') shall be taken to have been an amount equal to eight-sevenths of the amount or aggregate amount so attributed. This Amendment refers to the "supplement" which of itself automatically arouses objection from hon. Members opposite, and which we discussed in some detail in Committee.

I would assure the Committee that all that is done by this Amendment is to put into more correct arithmetical form the proposition which, although it may be ideologically unwelcome to hon. Members opposite, ought—and I am sure they will agree—to be properly expressed. The hon. and learned Member for Leicester, North-East (Sir L. Ungoed-Thomas) first drew my attention to the absurdity which might result in making 304 a deduction if we left the formula as it was. It is necessary to redraft the subsection so as to start with the whole eight-sevenths and then to make a deduction, rather than to wait until the end, and then add one-seventh. That would lead to a ridiculous mathematical result, and I am grateful that my attention was drawn to the point. I do not wish to raise the broad issues, but I think it right that this should be calculated in proper language and on a proper system.

§ Mr. Lindgren

We accept the expression of gratitude voiced by the right hon. Gentleman to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Leicester, North-East (Sir L. Ungoed-Thomas). This Amendment eliminates also the situation which might have arisen regarding those two words "appropriate fraction." I thought that the Minister was a little naive because, if I understood correctly, this means that the one-seventh supplement has gone and is now added to the capital value of the land. My hon. and learned Friend and other hon. Members called attention in Committee to the fact that this supplement was an addition to the capital value of the land. It is, as I rather graphically described it, a gift to the landlords. Inspite of the fact that it is an added capital value, I agree that it is far better we should say so, rather than call it an interest payment.