§ [No. 24.]
§ After Clause 29 insert the following new clause:
§ Exemption from development land tax.
§
. In section 11 of the Development Land Tax Act 1976 (which exempts certain bodies from that tax) there shall be added at the end of subsection (2) the following paragraph preceded by the word "and"—
(i) the Development Board for Rural Wales";
and the word "and" at the end of paragraph (g) shall be omitted.
§ The LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in thir Amendment No. 24. With it goes Amendment No. 30. The effect of these Amendments is to exempt the Development Board for Rural Wales from development tax.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Baroness ELLESMy Lords, this is quite common: a good many boards are exempt from development land tax. But I wish to register a protest on behalf of the small businesses of mid-Wales who will have to compete in business possibly, or with their farming activities, against a statutory body which is not paying all the taxes that they themselves have to pay. The Board will be setting itself up in competition advantageously and derive benefits from not paying the tax that small businesses and other people who are struggling to survive in mid-Wales will have to meet. It seems to me that this has a counter-productive effect, especially in view of the wide powers the Board has acquired and the possibility for it to enter into commerce rather than to be obliged to enable the people themselves to take on commercial undertakings. I 1386 appreciate, however, that this is a common form and that many boards do have this exemption.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.