Orders of the Day — Town and Country Planning Bill – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 1 Awst 1947.
3.—(1) Where an interest in land the value of which falls to be ascertained in accordance with the provisions of Part II of the Act of 1944 for the purposes of the compensation payable on a compulsory acquisition thereof is an interest held by a company having among its objects the holding of land, and being related (as hereinafter defined) to another company which carries on business on land so held, then, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph (a) of Subsection (6) of Section fifty-eight of the said Act, or of any regulation made thereunder, Subsection (5) of that Section shall have effect in relation to that interest as if references in paragraphs (a) to (d) of that subsection to the person entitled to compensation for the purchase of that interest included references to the last mentioned company.
(2) For the purposes of this paragraph a company shall be deemed to be related to another company if either of those companies is a subsidiary of the other (as defined by any Act of the present Session to amend the law relating to companies) or if both of them are subsidiaries (as so defined) of a third company."
Mr Charles Williams
, Torquay
As this Amendment deals with the matter of acquisition and compensation, I would like to trouble the Minister on this particular point. We ought to have an explanation. Could the Parliamentary Secretary or someone give us one? We have heard nothing whatever about this matter, so far as I know. I do not think that the point has been covered at other times in the course of consideration of the Bill. It seems to be of some importance.
Mr Lewis Silkin
, Camberwell Peckham
Really, it is a very simple point. It is intended to enable subsidiary companies of multiple companies to be treated as owner-occupiers in order to get the supplementary compensation—the additional percentage—until such time as they rank for market value. Under this Bill the 1939 compensation comes to an end, but until that time compensation will still be paid on that basis. So far subsidiary companies have not been treated as owner occupiers so as to entitle them to the 60 per cent. This enables the subsidiary companies to be so treated.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
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Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
