HOUSING BILL (Hansard, 13 April 1964)

§ Mr. Corfield

I beg to move, Amendment No. [75, in line 45, at the end to insert: (5) At any time after an order made by a local authority under section 11 of the said Act of 1956 has been confirmed, that authority may, if they think fit in the circumstances of any particular case, give their approval, for the purposes of the said section 12(1), to the incurring of expenditure which was incurred after the making but before the confirmation of the order, being expenditure such that, if the order had been confirmed immediately before it was incurred, they would, at the time when he approval is given under this subsection, have had power to give it under the last foregoing subsection; and where the approval of a local authority is given under this subsection as regards any expenditure, the said section 12(1) shall apply in relation to that expenditure as if that expenditure had been incurred immediately after the confirmation of the order. This is new to the clean air procedure and it gives the local authority discretionary power to pay a grant to a householder who has incurred the expenditure after the making of the order by the local authority, but before it is confirmed. Hitherto no grant has been payable unless the expenditure has been approved after the confirmation of the order.

This Amendment will apply only if the order is subsequently confirmed. It has been represented to us by the local authority associations that this discretionary power would help them and we consider that it is reasonable that they should have it.