HC Deb 23 October 1968 vol 770 cc1445-6

Lords Amendment No. 47: In page 25, line 24, leave out from "land" to "as" in line 26 and insert: indicated in a structure plan in force for the district in which it is situated either".

Mr. MacColl

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

I think that it might be convenient to take with this Amendment Lords Amendments Nos. 48, 49 and 50.

Mr. MacColl

These are all drafting Amendments.

Mr. Graham Page

I think that they are a little more than drafting, particularly Lords Amendment No. 47. That is a very substantial amendment to the time when a property is legally blighted. We have throughout our discussions on these blight clauses asked the Government to put the date back to the real date on which a property is blighted; that is, when there is some publicity about the proposals of the authority to acquire the property compulsorily or to develop the land around it. This is when the property is blighted—as soon as anybody knows that there is some development which will affect it.

The Amendment leaves the clause with a false date: that it becomes blighted when the structure plan gets to a very advanced stage. But, long before it gets to that stage, the property will have become unsaleable and great loss may be caused to the owner through being unable to sell the property and being unable to oblige the acquiring authority to acquire it there and then. The owner has to wait with a worthless property on his hands perhaps for years while the structure plan is known to everybody—estate agents and prospective purchasers—and his property is blighted, although not in law.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.

Lords Amendment No. 51: In page 26, leave out lines 3 to 16.

Mr. MacColl

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

With this Amendment go Lords Amendments Nos. 57, 62 and 172.

Mr. MacColl

This series of Amendments has a twofold purpose. They introduce the name "blight notice" into the vocabulary of planning so as to distinguish between those and other kinds of notices, such as purchase notices, and consolidate in a single schedule the verbal amendments necessitated to the blight provisions of the 1962 Act.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.