HC Deb 29 May 1956 vol 553 cc121-3
Mr. Powell

I beg to move, in page 2, line 12, to leave out from "and" to "a" in line 18 and to insert: at the date of the making of the order that house was occupied wholly or partly for the purposes of a business and the person entitled to the receipts of the business held an interest in the house, the appropriate authority shall make in respect of that interest ". This Amendment, together with that which follows, is designed to close a loophole in the Clause to which attention was drawn in Committee by the hon. and learned Member for Kettering (Mr. Mitchison), namely, the possibility that a weekly tenant of premises used for business purposes—that is to say, a person who has no compensatable interest under the Bill—might by collusion with the owner of the house be allowed to change that into a tenancy of longer duration, which would be an interest compensatable under the Bill. This would then attract compensation under Clause 2 which could be shared between the owner and the tenant.

The effect of these two Amendments, taken together, is that there must have been a compensatable interest either on 13th December, the date of the announcement of the main outlines of the Bill, or else for a continuous period of ten years up to the relevant slum clearance action. The Amendments will make it impossible for a short-term conversion, if I may so describe it, of a weekly tenancy into a compensatable interest to take place.

Mr. Mitchison

I should like to thank the hon. Gentleman for meeting this point, which is of a little importance, and to tell him, being at intervals a fairly honest person, that the point had also occurred to the local authorities, who are, of course, very much concerned to see that the provisions of the Bill are not used to attract rate money to people who do not really deserve it. I am sure that all my hon. Friends will agree that the point has been fully met and the Bill thereby, in yet one other respect, improved by the Opposition.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendment made: In page 2, line 29, leave out from "house" to first "the" in line 32 and insert: unless the house was occupied wholly or partly for business purposes, and a person entitled to the receipts of a business carried on wholly or partly therein held an interest in the house, either on the said thirteenth day of December or at all times during".—[Mr. Powell.]