§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether their failure to respond quickly and positively to requests that Scio House, Putney, be listed has resulted in this interesting old house being demolished by a commercial developer and whether 334WA they will investigate the reasons for the failure of the Wandsworth, Borough Council to serve a building preservation notice on the property.
§ The Earl of AvonMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has several times been asked to consider listing of Scio House. However, buildings are listed as being of special architectural or historic interest only if they satisfy the criteria drawn up by the Historic Buildings Council and are accepted by the Secretary of State. Against these criteria, Scio House was judged not to warrant inclusion in the statutory list. Whether or not to serve a building preservation notice is a matter entirely for a local planning authority to decide. In this case, however, the London Borough of Wandsworth would have had to bear in mind that such a notice would be unlikely to be followed by listing, in which case they would themselves have been liable to pay compensation for any loss or damage suffered directly as a result of the notice.