§ On and after the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and sixty-one, section one of the House Letting and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1911 (which inter alia defines the expression "small dwelling-house" for the purposes of that Act) shall have effect as if for the reference to yearly rent or value there were substituted a reference to gross annual value.—[The Solicitor-General for Scotland.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ The Solicitor-General for ScotlandI beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
Right hon. and hon. Members may remember that when Clause 31 in the original Bill was deleted in Committee I pointed out that that would involve a little tidying up at a later stage because the definition of the value of the houses dealt with by Section 1 of the House Letting and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1911, becomes ambiguous so far as this Bill is concerned. The Bill makes it necessary to distinguish between the gross annual value and the net annual and rateable values of a house.
What we have tried to do and we have, I think, succeeded, is to try to get a definition which will as nearly as possible keep the same houses within the 1911 Act and keep the same houses out. It is impossible to get a formula which is absolutely watertight. There are bound to be some houses which will come into the 1911 Act and some which will be out-with it, but I think that we have got as near as possible with this new Clause.
§ Clause read a Second time and added to the Bill.