Town and Country Planning Act 1959

1 (1) The provisions of this paragraph shall have effect in relation to any compulsory acquisition, being—

(a) an acquisition under Part III of the Scottish Act of 1947, or

(b) an acquisition under section thirteen of the Housing and Town Development (Scotland) Act, 1957, or

(c) an acquisition in pursuance of Part IV of this Act, or

(d) an acquisition of land within the area designated by an order under section one of the New Towns Act, 1946, as the site of a new town, or

(e) an acquisition by a development corporation or a local highway authority or the Secretary of State under the New Towns Act, 1946, or under any enactment as applied by any provision of that Act,

and being (in any such case) an acquisition where the land in question comprises a house which, in the opinion of an appropriate local authority, is unfit for human habitation and not capable at reasonable expense of being rendered fit for human habitation.

(2) The local authority may make and submit to the Minister an order, in such form as may be prescribed by regulations made under section one hundred and seventy-two of the Act of 1950, declaring the house to be in the state referred to in the preceding sub-paragraph ; and if—

(a) that order is confirmed by the Minister, either before or concurrently with the confirmation of a compulsory purchase order for the acquisition of the land, or

(b) in a case where the acquisition is in pursuance of a notice to treat deemed to have been served in consequence of the service of a notice under section seventeen of the Scottish Act of 1947 or the provisions of that section as applied by or under any other enactment, or in consequence of the service of a notice under subsection (4) of section six of the New Towns Act, 1946, or under Part IV of this Act, the order is made before the date on which the notice to treat is deemed to have been served and is subsequently confirmed by the Minister,

the provisions of subsection (2) of section thirty-six of the Act of 1950, and the provisions of section forty of that Act as read with section twenty of the Housing and Town Development (Scotland) Act, 1957 (which relate to certain payments in respect of houses purchased or demolished under the Act of 1950) shall apply as if the house had been purchased under Part III of the Act of 1950 as being in the state referred to in the preceding sub-paragraph, and as if any reference in those sections to the local authority were a reference to the acquiring authority.

(3) Before submitting to the Minister an order under this paragraph, the local authority by whom the order was made shall serve on every owner, and (so far as it is reasonably practicable to ascertain such persons) on the superior of, and the holder of every heritable security over, the land or any part thereof, a notice in such form as may be prescribed as mentioned in the last preceding sub-paragraph, stating the effect of the order and that it is about to be submitted to the Minister for confirmation, and specifying the time within which, and the manner in which, objection thereto can be made.

(4) If no objection is duly made by any of the persons on whom notices are required to be served, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the Minister may, if he thinks fit, confirm the order; but in any other case he shall, before confirming the order, consider any objection not withdrawn, and shall, if either the person by whom the objection was made or the local authority so desires, afford to that person and the authority an opportunity of appearing before and being heard by a person appointed by the Minister for the purpose.

(5) Subsection (2) of section one hundred and eighty-four of the Act of 1950 shall have effect in determining for the purposes of this paragraph whether a house is fit for human habitation as it has effect in so determining for the purposes of that Act.

(6) In this paragraph " appropriate local authority " means a local authority who, in relation to the area in which the land in question is situated, are a local authority for the purposes of the provisions of Part III of the Act of 1950 relating to clearance areas.