GRANTS TO AUTHORITIES WHO BUY OR RENT CROWN LAND (Hansard, 14 October 1975)

§ Mr. John Silkin
I beg to move, Amendment No. 348, in page 38, line 9, leave out 'an authority' and insert: 'a local or new town authority, the Land Authority for Wales, the Peak Park Joint or Lake District Special Planning Board, or a joint board established under section 2 of this Act'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this amendment it will be convenient to take Government Amendment No. 349.

§ Mr. Silkin
As I think the House knows, these amendments substitute for "authority" a list of the bodies for which it is intended that the grant arrangements in subsection (2) shall apply.
These grant arrangements arise because, during the transitional period of the community land scheme, the basis of compensation for land acquired by authorities from the private sector will continue to be market value, but less development land tax.
The Crown does not pay development land tax. It does not pay any tax. Therefore, it is intended" that, where authorities buy land from the Crown, the price should correspond to what it would have cost had they bought it from the private sector. In other words, there is a grant of the notional loss of tax.
Since the "net of tax" arrangements will apply not only where local authorities acquire land for the purposes of the community land scheme but where they acquire land for the purposes of their other specific functions, it is right that local authorities, when acting outside their areas, and local authorities in Wales, which are not "authorities" as defined 1242 in the Bill, should be brought within the scope of the grant arrangements. Furthermore, any joint board constituted by order under Clause 2 would be established as an authority for the purposes of the Bill and should also be covered by these arrangements.