HC Deb 19 January 1970 vol 794 cc62-3W
Mr. McElhone

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the circumstances in which consideration is given to the former owners in the disposal of agricultural land which becomes surplus to the requirements of a Government Department.

Mr. Taverne

In all cases where surplus land qualifies for consideration for offer back to former owners, it continues to be the policy, as it has been since the statement to the House on 20th July 1954 by the then Minister of Agriculture, that each case is considered on its merits with the desire that this should be done where circumstances show that the land can properly be offered to a former owner or his successor who can establish a claim. All such offers are made at the current market price.

Accordingly, at the same time as consideration is given to the requirements of any other Government Departments or non-departmental public authorities, consideration is given to the interests of the former owners in cases where agricultural land, which was acquired compulsorily, or under the threat of compulsion although acquired by agreement, and held by a Government Department, is no longer required for any of the Department's purposes.

The current practice is, in general, that the land must have been acquired by the Government Department on or after 1st January 1935; and at the time of the acquisition or entry into possession must have been used for agriculture, and must be still predominantly agricultural in nature when it becomes surplus to the Department's requirements. Land is regarded as outside the scope of these arrangements, which are intended for land which is to continue in agriculture indefinitely, if it is the subject of planning permission for development (other than for agricultural purposes, e.g. agricultural storage), or if the disposing Department has been informed by the planning authority that such permission would be likely to be granted, or if the land is intended to be taken for development within the designated area of a new town or a town development area. The former owner (which includes his successor if the former owner is deceased) must be resident in the United Kingdom and must either still own the estate or property of which the Department's surplus land formed a part when acquired, or be known or discovered to be farming in the United Kingdom. If the former owner is deceased his successor for the purpose of consideration for offer back is the person on whom the property would clearly have devolved under the former owner's will or intestacy but for the Government's acquisition, and may include any person who has succeeded, otherwise than by purchase, to the adjoining land from which the land was severed by the Government's acquisition.