§ 74. Mr. Awberyasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he is aware that the compensation of the gross rate able value made to owner-occupiers of 30W dwellings is inadequate and inequitable to men who have put their life savings into their homes; and if he will introduce legislation to increase this amount to the market value of the house.
§ Mr. H. BrookeCompensation based on the gross rateable value is only a minimum, designed to ensure that, however small his interest, no owner-occupier of an unfit house shall receive a purely nominal payment. This minimum provision was established by the Town and Country Planning Act, 1959, and it is too early yet to judge how it is operating. Compensation at the market value of the house is provided by law for owner-occupiers of unfit houses bought between 1939 and 1955 when prices were high and before slum clearance had been resumed. Other owner-occupiers receive the value of the cleared site together with a payment for good maintenance wherever that is appropriate.