§ 11.5 a.m.
§ THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD CHAMPION)My Lords, I beg to move that the Farmers' Machinery Syndicates Grants (Extension of Period) Order 1966 be approved. The Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1963 provides at Section 6 for one-third grant towards the cost of certain buildings occupied by farmers' machinery syndicates. These grants were introduced after the 1961 Annual Review to encourage this form of co-operation among farmers, and arrangements were made that grants should run for a five-year period, up to the end of March, 1966. The Act of 1963 provided accordingly for the period of grant approvals to end in March this year, but provision was made for the period to be extended up to, but not beyond, the end of March, 1968. This Order provides for this extension.
It is the hope that the Central Council for Agricultural and Horticultural co-operation proposed under the Agriculture Bill, which we introduced this Session in another place, will take over the administration of these grants. But we cannot be sure when this will be, and the Order which I am asking your Lordships to approve provides for the full permissible extension of two years. If the present arrangements under the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1963 are eventually superseded this Order will be nullified. It is a holding operation and on that basis I hope that your Lordships will be content to agree that the Order be approved.
§ Moved, That the Farmers' Machinery Syndicates Grants (Extension of Period) Order 1966, be approved.—(Lord Champion.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.