HC Deb 02 December 1943 vol 395 cc536-7W
Major C.S. Taylor

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in the case of businesses closed by the requisitioning of their business premises by one of the Service Departments, compensation is payable for disturbance and loss of trade as in the case of businesses closed under a Board of Trade concentration scheme?

Sir J. Anderson

No compensation is payable from public funds for disturbance and loss of trade, either when business premises are requisitioned by a Service Department, or under a concentration scheme, nor for many other types of loss brought about by the war. The scheme for the concentration of industry was deliberately made flexible, and a wide variety of arrangements between nucleus and closed firms is possible under it. When businesses are closed because their premises are needed by a Service Department, no such arrangements are practicable, but, in this case, a compensation rent and other payments are payable from public funds under the Compensation (Defence) Act, 1939.