Clause 9.—(DUTIES OF ASSESSORS.) (Hansard, 27 June 1956)

§ The Solicitor-General for Scotland
I beg to move, in page 13, line 18, at the end to insert: or (b) any alteration in the net annual value and rateable value of any lands and heritages which is due to an order made by the Secretary of State under subsection (7) of section six or subsection (7) of section seven of this Act".

§ Mr. Speaker
I think the following Amendment, in line 26, goes with this Amendment.

§ The Solicitor-General for Scotland
It covers the same point, because both Amendments are designed to lay a duty on assessors to make appropriate alterations in the valuation roll when the Secretary of State has made such an alteration in the deductions as we have just been discussing.
9.30 p.m.
As the Bill stands, it is not at all clear whether, in the event of an alteration being made in the middle of a quinquennium that would be given effect to by the assessors, and conversely, whether, if the assessor did not give effect to it, the occupier would have a right of appeal. 607 In order to clarify that, it seemed desirable that we should have both provisions inserted in the Bill.

§ The Solicitor-General for Scotland
I beg to move, in page 13, to leave out lines 31 to 34.
The effect of this Amendment is to delete the requirement that an appeal against a valuation on the ground of material change had to be preceded by notice given before a specified date. This restriction is, I think, unnecessary, and a similar restriction which originally appeared in Clause 15 was deleted in Committee.

§ The Solicitor-General for Scotland
I beg to move, in page 14, line 38, to leave out from "value" to end of line 45 and insert: and, without prejudice to the foregoing generality, includes any alteration in such lands and heritages and any relevant decision of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court or the Valuation Appeal Committee for the valuation area in which the lands and heritages are situated, but does not include a change in the rent of the said or any other lands and heritages or any change in the general level of valuations or in the values of lands and heritages situated in the area of a particular rating authority. The object of this Amendment is to ensure that a change of rent in itself—and I stress the words "in itself"—independently of any change in value should not be a ground for making a fresh valuation. It would, of course, be inconsistent with the general principle of the Bill—which is that valuation should be on fair rent—if changes in actual rent were reflected in valuation every time they took place. This is so particularly in the case of local authority rents, which may go up. This Amendment is designed to ensure that the assessor does not consider just the rent and automatically increase the valuation if the rent goes up. I think that this is both a harmless and a helpful provision.

§ Mr. McInnes
Perhaps the Solicitor-General would enlighten me. He rather indicated that a change in actual rent should not, under the Bill, be regarded as a change of material circumstance—or words akin to that. If, for example, in the event of the Government bringing about the abolition of the Rent Restriction Acts, which would upset the whole structure of rents in the country, can he tell us whether that would not be regarded as a material change of circumstance?

§ The Solicitor-General for Scotland
With the leave of the House. The hon. Gentleman will realise, of course, that Clause 9 deals with 1961–62 onwards. Until then the valuations will be frozen. Thereafter, if rents of controlled houses go up, the assessor will not regard that, and would not be entitled to regard that as being, in itself, a ground for altering the valuation. I can give him that assurance.