Agriculture Act 1967

Farm improvements

30 Grants for long term improvements for the benefit of agricultural land.

(1) With a view to assisting in the making of long term improvements for the benefit of agricultural land the appropriate Minister may make out of money provided by Parliament grants towards the cost of such improvements of a kind described in Schedule 4 to this Act as he may approve for that purpose.

(2) The applicant for the grant may be a person having an interest in the land (being in Scotland an interest as proprietor or as tenant) for the benefit of which the improvement is proposed, or a person intending to acquire such an interest if the improvement is approved, and the applicant may propose more than one improvement in his application.

(3) The appropriate Minister may, as he thinks fit, either refuse to approve a proposed improvement or approve it in whole or in part, and the approval—

(a) may be given before or, in such classes of cases as the appropriate Minister may direct, after the carrying out of the proposals,

(b) may be made subject to such conditions as the appropriate Minister may specify, and in particular subject to any condition as to the time within which the proposals are to be carried out,

(c) may be varied or withdrawn by the appropriate Minister with the applicant's written consent.

(4) The appropriate Minister shall not approve any improvement unless he is satisfied—

(a) that all the land for the benefit of which the improvement is proposed is agricultural land occupied together with buildings and is capable of yielding a sufficient livelihood to an occupier reasonably skilled in husbandry, or will be capable of doing so as a result of the improvement, and

(b) that the cost of the improvement will not be unreason ably high in relation to the benefit in the farming of the agricultural land derived from the improvement, and

(c) that the improvement is such as a prudent owner-occupier would be willing to make, having regard to its cost and to all other circumstances, but disregarding benefits derived from the imprpvement other than the benefit in the farming of the agricultural land.

(5) The amount of any grant payable under this section towards the cost of an improvement shall be one quarter of that cost so far as approved by the appropriate Minister as having been reasonably incurred.

(6) The appropriate Minister may reduce or withhold a grant under this section in any case where—

(a) assistance in respect of the improvement is given under any other enactment in this or any other Act, or

(b) the carrying out of the improvement appears to him to frustrate the purposes served by any expenditure incurred in respect of any other improvement, or incurred on any other occasion, being expenditure in respect of which a grant has been paid out of money provided by Parliament under this section or any other enactment in this or any other Act.

(7) A grant under this section shall be payable to the person or persons by whom or on whose behalf the work required for making the improvement is done, and may be paid on the completion of that work or by instalments on the completion of parts of that work.

(8) A grant shall not be made under section 12 of the [1957 c. 57.] Agriculture Act 1957 (which is superseded by the provisions of this section)—

(a) in respect of an improvement proposed in an application made under that section after 17th November 1965, or

(b) where none of the work, or only a negligible part of the work, required for making the relevant improvement has been done before the passing of this Act, or before the end of the period of two years beginning with the date on which the proposal for the relevant improvement was approved, whichever is the later,

but, if the appropriate Minister so directs, paragraph (a) above shall not apply in relation to an application which in the opinion of the appropriate Minister is in substitution for an application made on or before the said 17th November 1965 and is in respect of an improvement which serves the same purposes as well as or better than, and not at substantially greater cost than, the improvement to which the earlier application related.

(9) The grants made under this section, with the grants made under the said section 12 and under section 16 of the Agriculture Act 1957 (grants for amalgamations) and any grants made in respect of improvements of a kind to which this section applies out of money provided by Parliament by any Act passed after 27th April 1966 and before the passing of this Act, shall not altogether exceed the sum of one hundred and seventy million pounds.

(10) The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State may from time to time, by order made by them jointly by statutory instrument subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, vary Schedule 4 to this Act, but without prejudice to the payment of any grant towards the cost of an improvement approved before the coming into operation of the order.