HL Deb 29 March 1977 vol 381 cc762-4

2.57 p.m.

The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Elwyn-Jones) rose to move, That the draft Community Land (Excepted Development) Amendment (Wales) Regulations 1977, laid before the House on 10th March, be approved. The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, with your Lordships' permission, I will speak to the two Motions in my name, which relate to the Development Board for Rural Wales. Each Instrument is concerned with the position of the Development Board for Rural Wales under the community land scheme. The two existing Statutory Instruments which are to be amended already protect the position of the Welsh Development Agency, some of whose property is being transferred to the Board. The amending Instruments now laid in draft would, if approved, give similar status to the Development Board for Rural Wales. I refer first to the Community Land (Excepted Development) Amendment (Wales) Regulations 1977. These amending regulations seek to widen Class 8 in Part I of the Schedule to the Community Land (Excepted Development) Regulations 1976 in favour of the Development Board for Rural Wales. They amend the 1976 regulations by including any development of land, the freehold in which is owned by the Development Board, within the classes of development which are prescribed by the 1976 regulations. Development of such classes is excepted from the definition of "relevant development" in Section 3 of the Act.

Immediate effect of the amending regulations will be as follows. The Community Land Act 1975, provides for the Land Authority for Wales to be notified by the local planning authority of planning applications wherever made, and this includes the area covered by the Development Board for Rural Wales, (initially Powys County, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd Districts). The purpose of such notification is to determine whether the Land Authority wish to acquire the land to which the planning application relates. If they do so wish, they may, where the application is for planning permission for relevant development, operate a statutory procedure for notifying the landowner of their intention, suspending the planning permission and giving them time to pursue acquisition. The notification procedure, however, operates only for "relevant development" applications, within the meaning of those words in the Act.

The effect of the amendment now proposed is to take any development on any freehold land held by the Board outside the definition of "relevant development" and therefore outside the notification procedure which I have mentioned. Such land is already in the public sector, and it is considered that development should be allowed to go ahead (subject, of course, to planning permission) without intervention by the Land Authority under the notice procedure.

As to the second, equally technical Instrument, the Compulsory Acquisition by Public Authorities (Compensation) Amendment No. 2 (Wales) Order 1977, that seeks to amend the earlier compulsory acquisition order of 1976 by including the Wales Development Board among the bodies enjoying the benefit of the special arrangements for assessing compensation where land passes from one public authority to another, or to a Minister. The bodies which at present take part in these arrangements are listed in Statutory Instrument 1218 and in the Explanatory Note. The purpose of the 1976 order was to prescribe the way in which the rules for assessing compensation should be modified when determining the price to be paid for land passing between any two of the bodies referred to in the Instrument, to allow for the fact that all such bodies are exempt from development land tax. The result of this amendment, therefore, will again be to enable the Development Board for Rural Wales to enjoy the advantage of that procedure. My Lords, while apologising for the technicality of what I have said, I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft Community Land (Excepted Development) Amend- ment (Wales) Regulations 1977, laid before the House on 10th March, be approved.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

Lord SANDFORD

My Lords, we are grateful to the noble and learned Lord for moving these two orders. Knowing how enthusiastic members of the Party opposite are about the Community Land Act, I was surprised at the absence of cheers when he had finished. But the noble and learned Lord will know that to those of us on this side of the House the Community Land Act is not a favourite piece of legislation. However, I think that in order to deal with it we shall have to take steps rather more radical than standing in the way of this particular measure. We are grateful to the noble and learned Lord.

The LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords I am grateful for that somewhat qualified approval of what I propose, which will be, I am sure, of very great benefit to the areas that I have mentioned—Powys, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd. It is a great pleasure to move this Motion if only to speak those holy words aloud.

On Question, Motion agreed to.