§ Sir K. WOODasked the Minister of Transport whether he can state the position in relation to the compensation for weekly tenants, who are shopkeepers, under the Royal Victoria Dock Approaches (Improvement) Act, 1929; whether any compensation has been paid and upon what basis; and whether, in connection with the sums paid for shops that are taken over in the Barking Road, the district valuer has been consulted?
§ Mr. HERBERT MORRISONIn the circumstances of this case I am advised that there is no legal authority for the payment of compensation of any kind to dispossessed weekly tenants. My Department, however, on whom the cost of the scheme mainly rests has already indicated that approval will be given to a 889W payment towards the reasonable cost of removal of such tenants, and where the tenancy comprises a dwelling it is also proposed to offer the dispossessed tenant alternative accommodation in the houses and flats now in the course of erection in the vicinity of the new road. I am informed that the district valuer was consulted in regard to the compensation paid by the West Ham Corporation, who are the promoters of the scheme, to the shopkeepers in Barking Road.