§ Mr. CASSELSasked the Minister of Health whether there has now been sufficient experience of the method of assessing compensation under Section 9 of the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1919, re-enacted under Section 46 of the Housing Act, 1925, to enable him to contemplate the introduction at an early date of legislation which will provide for fair market value compensation being given to owners of land and premises thereon where such land is included in the scheme of the local authority only for the purpose of making the scheme efficient, and not on account of the sanitary condition of the premises thereon or of the premises being dangerous or prejudicial to health; whether he is aware of the hardship caused to many small owners of property by the inadequate compensation, based on site value, paid to them in consequence of their property, in good condition, being included in clearance schemes of local authorities; whether he has had brought to his notice the case of any local authority acquiring properties under a scheme on payment of site value to owners failing to demolish the in sanitary houses, carrying out superficial repairs, and collecting rents for all the houses included in the scheme; and, if so, whether he will consider what steps should be taken to provide a limit of time within which local authorities should be obliged to proceed with these schemes or hand the property back to the original owners on the repayment of the compensation?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe question of the basis of compensation in connection with slum clearance is engaging my attention, but I am not at present able to make any announcement as regards future legislation. I must not, however, be assumed to accept the statements in the question without qualification. As regards the last part of the question, I am aware that in one or two cases, owing to difficulty in completing the necessary rehousing, local2262W authorities have been obliged to retain possession of in sanitary property acquired under a slum clearance scheme for a limited period before they have been able to demolish it, but I think this position is only likely to arise in exceptional cases, and I am quite sure that every local authority will desire to carry out their duty of demolishing such property as soon as they are able to do so.