HL Deb 30 October 1975 vol 365 cc710-1

[No. 18]

Clause 9, page 6, line 7, at end insert—

"(2) In section 59 of that Act (compensation for exercise of special powers in relation to tenancies)—

  1. (a) in subsection (1), after the word "sections" there shall be inserted the words "or, subject to subsection (IA) below, section 60A below", and
  2. (b) after that subsection there shall be inserted the following subsection:—

"(1A) No compensation shall be recoverable under subsection (1) above where the certificate was given under section 60A below and either—

  1. (a) the premises vested in the Welsh Development Agency under section 6 (property of Welsh Industrial Estates Corporation) or 7 (land held under Local Employment Act 1972) of the Welsh Development Agency Act 1975,
    2. 711
  2. (b) the tenant was not tenant of the premises when the said Agency acquired the interest by virtue of which the certificate was given.""

Lord LOVELL-DAVIS

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 18. The Government have considered carefully and sympathetically the representations made both here by the noble Lord, Lord Elton, and in another place about the need to provide in some way for the rights of tenants whose landlords might dispose of their freehold interest in land to the Agency and who in consequence become in that particular way tenants of the Agency and thus subject to the application of the certificate system provided for in the Landlord and Tenant Act, a system which, I might add, is very rarely used.

A clear distinction can be drawn between the tenants I have just described who become tenants of the Agency second-hand and others, such as existing tenants of the Welsh Industrial Estates Corporation, who enter into leases with the Agency willingly and knowingly, fully aware of the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act and the possible application of the certificate procedure to their premises. We concluded that it would be right to provide for an entitlement to compensation in the case of "unknowing" tenants in the event that the certificate procedure was applied to them—a procedure of which they would have had no knowledge when entering into their leases. This Amendment achieves that aim.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment—(Lord Lovell-Davis.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.