HC Deb 01 March 1948 vol 448 cc29-31W
99. Sir J. Mellor

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the date and terms of each direction given by the Treasury to the War Damage Commission.

1945. Mr. Glenvil Hall

I am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT the date of and subject matter covered by each direction. The purport of all directions bearing on the interests of war damage claimants generally has been published from time to time by the Commission in the Press and in their "Practice Notes" issued for the information of claimants or their professional advisers, and the purport of any direction of limited application has been communicated by the Commission to those particular claimants whose interests were affected.

Following are the directions:

1. 19th June,A direction instructing the Commission not to pay the cost of repairs carried out without a building licence where one was required until such time as the works could lawfully have been done or the Licensing Department had decided not to prosecute for the failure to obtain a licence.

2. 19th June,A direction empowering the Commission to pay a cost of works payment where a value payment was appropriate but reinstatement of the property was certified to be necessary in the public interest for the public safety, defence of the realm, prosecution of the war, or maintenance of essential supplies and services (cancelled on 14th August, 1945).

3. 3rd July,A direction that war damage payments shall be of such a kind, subject to such condition as will prevent, so far as possible, any works of reconstruction resulting from war damage, being executed, which are not in conformity with the public interest.

4. 3rd September,A direction empowering the Commission to make advance payments for the repair of war damage where the appropriate Government Department certifies that the applicant's needs would otherwise have been met by loan under the Housing (Emergency Powers) Act, 1939, or the Essential Buildings and Plant (Repair of War Damage) Act, 1939.

5. 22nd October,A direction empowering the Commission to pay, so far as permissible under the Act, for the restoration to a seemly condition of cemeteries, including the repair of tombstones and memorials not extensively damaged, and in other cases the provision of a plain substitute.

6. 21st February,A direction empowering the Commission to make immediate payment of compromise settlements with insurance companies in respect of damage caused by fires of doubtful origin.

6a. July,A direction empowering the Commission to make immediate payment of compromise settlements in cases where there is genuine doubt as to the cause of damage or the extent of war damage.

7. 8th October,A direction empowering the Commission to make immediate payment of a value payment or part thereof to meet costs incurred by an owner for the demolition and clearance or repair of a damaged building or the construction of a substitute building.

8. 25th October,A direction empowering the Commission to pay a cost of works payment in respect of:

  1. (a) any house built since 31st March, 1914, however great the damage.
  2. (b) any house built before that date, which before the damage, was in sound condition, and in design, layout, and amenities, reasonably similar to houses of the same type built since that date, however great the damage.
  3. (c) Any houses (other than are condemned under the Housing Act) which in the Commission's opinion only sustained minor war damage.
  4. (d) Any house (other than a condemned house or a house on a site of very high value for redevelopment) which after the war damage is not in such a condition that, in the Commission's opinion it would have been unreasonable in 1939 to reinstate it in its predamaged form.

8a. 7th August,A direction empowering the Commission in the cases of houses for which a value payment was appropriate, to pay for the cost of works executed by a local authority in the exercise of their statutory power to make the houses fit for habitation, and similar works carried out by an owner at the instigation of his local authority.

April,A direction making it clear that the expression "houses," in direction No. 8 does not include makeshift buildings, licensed premises, hotels and boarding houses.

10. 4th October,A direction empowering the Commission to pay for the making good of war damage to buildings which the Commission are satisfied are of special architectural or historical importance.

11. 4th May,A direction empowering the Commission, in cases where a value payment is appropriate, to pay the cost of moving unsound or valueless structures and debris.