HC Deb 24 July 1969 vol 787 cc2210-2

Lords Amendment No. 16: In page 46, line 20, leave out from "it" to "be" in line 21 and insert: Schedule 7 to this Act shall apply and, if the tenancy was granted before the commencement of this Act,".

Read a Second time.

Mr. Graham Page

I beg to move, as an Amendment to the Lords Amendment, in line 3, leave out "commencement" and insert "passing".

I propose to make a unique speech from the Opposition Dispatch Box by saying that this is a drafting Amendment.

Mr. MacColl

I am glad that hon. Gentlemen opposite do not intend to say that this is in their election manifesto. We are willing to accept the Amendment because it makes a cleaner draft of the Bill.

Question, That the Amendment be made, put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment, as amended, agreed to.

Lords Amendment No. 17: In page 46, line 26, leave out from beginning to "it" and insert: within twenty years of the date when".

Mr. MacColl

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

I have no hesitation in paying tribute to this Amendment, because it came from the Law Society, not the Opposition, and it is an improvement.

Mr. Peter Walker

It was pointed out on Report.

Mr. MacColl

It was pointed out on Report, but the Law Society suggested a way in which it could be done. Our difficulty was finding a way of doing it. This does it and I think that we should accept the Amendment.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment No. 18: In page 46, line 28, after "granted" insert "before the passing of this Act or was granted".

Mr. MacColl

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

Mr. Speaker

With this we can discuss Lords Amendment No. 21.

Mr. MacColl

These two Amendments deal with the conditions under which Clause 79, dealing with premiums. operates.

The first has the effect that this condition will be imposed only for leases granted from now on. This is because of the difficulty which has arisen over leases already in existence and the great variety of terms which the fertile brains of conveyances in different parts of the country have produced to get over various problems. We decided that the way to do it was to apply Clause 79 to future leases, not to those already in existence. By a strange coincidence another place came to the same conclusion.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment No. 19: In page 46, line 36, after "underletting" insert: of the whole of the premises comprised in the tenancy

Mr. MacColl

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

This, again, is a point that the Law Society made to us, that it is not uncommon for leases to permit the assignment of the lease of the whole premises let while prohibiting assignment or subletting of part of them only.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords Amendment No. 20: In page 46 line 40, leave out from "term" to "offer" in line 41 and insert: requiring in connection with a request for consent the making of an

Mr. MacColl

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

The last of the three conditions in Clause 79(2) is that it must be possible to assign or underlet the tenancy and, in connection with this, the Clause provides that a tenancy with a term making a request for consent dependent on a previous offer to surrender the tenancy would not satisfy this condition.

The Law Society pointed out that it is not necessarily the request for consent which is dependent on a previous offer to surrender. This is a drafting Amendment to meet that situation.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.

Forward to