RENOVATION GRANTS: OWNER'S APPLICATIONS AND TENANT'S APPLICATIONS (Hansard, 8 July 1996)

§ Mr. Clappison
I beg to move amendment No. 18, in page 4, line 35, leave out from 'State' to end of line 36 and insert— 'References in this Chapter to tenants and other expressions relating to tenancies, in the context of a tenant's application for a renovation grant, shall be construed accordingly.'.

§ Madam Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 19 to 21, 40, 45, 47, 48 and 58.

§ Mr. Clappison
The Bill as drafted has sought to include in the scope of grant aid those residents who occupy their homes under licences. It is the intention of the Bill that such applicants be treated as tenants for the purposes of grant eligibility. That is achieved by virtue of clauses 7, 14 and 19, which provide for the Secretary of State to extend, by order, the ambit of qualifying tenant for the purposes of grants to include other tenants and licensees.
38 That, however, has consequences for terms of reference in the Bill which apply to tenants such as letting and tenancy. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the intention of such expressions can be applied to those licensees eligible for grant assistance. These are technical amendments to achieve that effect.

§ Mr. Raynsford
As the Minister stressed, this is largely a technical group of amendments that seek to ensure that licensees are treated in exactly the same way as tenants for the purposes of grant applications. We welcome that. It is a sensible move. The only problem, however, is the lack of consistency.
When we reach Government amendments Nos. 50 and 51, we shall discover that, far from treating licensees in the same way as tenants, the Government are adopting a quite different approach where the Bill deals with the entitlement to notification, where people live in properties affected by deferred action notices. I ask the Minister to reflect on the rather curious differential treatment in the Bill between licensees and tenants.
Having said that, we welcome amendment No. 18. However, we are less keen about amendments Nos. 50 and 51. We welcome the amendment because it ensures that a licensee will not be treated differently from a tenant, and there are people who are licensees because of the nature of the agreement—which, in many cases, they were forced to sign—who should not be discriminated against if they seek a grant to assist in the renovation of their homes.