§ Mr. SainsburyI beg to move Amendment No. 221, in page 31, line 6, at end insert—
'(3) The Acquisition of Land Acts shall apply to the compulsory acquisition of land under this section as they apply to the compulsory acquisition of land in a case falling within section l(l)(b) of the Act of 1946, or as the case may be the Act of 1947'.This amendment follows a point raised in Committee. I recall that a little while ago the Minister said that anything which puzzled my right hon. Friend the Member for Crosby (Mr. Page) caused consternation to everyone else. We are dealing here with a point which puzzled my right hon. Friend in Committee. What we are concerned with is whether anyone whose land is compulsorily acquired by the Secretary of State purely to enable him to manage, run, develop or re-sell empty office blocks which he has acquired under other provisions of this Bill should have that property taken away from him under the penal compensation code in Clause 31 or whether it should be taken away under the normal compensation code. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that 1233 it is taken away under the normal compensation code. The point was left open at the end of the Committee debate.
§ Mr. John SilkinI am grateful to the hon. Member for Hove (Mr. Sainsbury) for his probing amendment because it enables me to set the matter out and put the record straight. Under Clause 33(1) the Acquisition of Land Acts are already applied to the compulsory acquisition of land under Part IV of the Bill. The modifications of those Acts in Schedule 4 do not apply to any compulsory purchase order under Part TV and the modifications in subsection (2) of Clause 33—which disapplies the requirement to specify the purpose for which the land is required—do not operate in respect of a compulsory purchase order under Clause 32. In short, the Bill already makes the provision which is sought by the amendment.
§ Mr. SainsburyI am delighted that we are now seeming to be more certain on these points than we were in Committee. In the light of that assurance, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.