§ Mr. VarleyI beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 2, line 19, leave out subsection (3) and insert:
(3) No grant shall be made, by virtue of this section, under section 3 of the Local Employment Act 1960 (building grants), towards the 414 expenditure incurred in providing a building or extension in an intermediate area, in a case where any work on providing that building or extension, being work undertaken by or on behalf of the applicant, was done on the site before 25th June 1969; nor, where any work on providing a building or extension intended for occupation by an undertaking was so done, shall a grant be so made under that section in respect of a purchase of that building or extension for occupation by that undertaking.In tabling this Amendment the Government had two aims in mind. First, the Amendment will provide a somewhat clearer and simpler version of a provision which some hon. Members, for reasons with which I sympathise, have found difficult to understand.Secondly, it is designed to close a loophole in the Bill of which the Ministry of Technology has only recently become aware. Under the Bill as drafted, we believe that it might be possible for a firm which had started building a factory for its own use before 25th June to secure a building grant by selling the factory to a developer and buying it back, after the intermediate areas had been designated, as a new building not previously occupied.
It would not be desirable for this loophole to remain open. Grant should not be payable on a factory on which work had started before 25th June, 1969—the date on which the proposed intermediate areas were announced by my right hon. Friend the Minister without Portfolio—with the intention that it should be occupied by a particular undertaking.
§ Amendment agreed to.