§ 54. Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment why he has not yet used his powers to acquire any empty office blocks compulsorily under the Community Land Act 1975; and in what way commercial circumstances have changed since the original publication of the Bill which contained those powers.
§ Mr. John SilkinI shall not hesitate to use them if I judge that the circumstances of any particular case warrant it. The commercial situation has changed to the extent that the bursting of the property boom fuelled by the last Conservative Government has made it far less attractive to developers to go in for speculative office building.