22Power of Secretary of State to give financial assistance to crofters
(1)For the purpose of aiding and developing agricultural production on crofts the Secretary of State may, after consultation with the Commission and with the approval of the Treasury, make schemes for providing grants and loans to crofters, and any such schemes may provide for the administration of such grants and loans through the agency of the Commission.
Any scheme under this subsection shall be embodied in a statutory instrument which shall be laid before Parliament after being made.
(2)The Secretary of State may, in accordance with arrangements made by him with the approval of the Treasury, provide assistance by way of grants or loans or by the supply for payment in cash of building or other materials towards the erection or improvement or rebuilding of dwelling-houses and other buildings for crofters.
(3)The Secretary of State may, in accordance with arrangements made by him with the approval of the Treasury, provide assistance by way of loan to the incoming tenant of a croft to enable him to pay to the outgoing tenant of the croft or to the landlord thereof the compensation for permanent improvements due to such outgoing tenant.
(4)Regulations shall be made by the Secretary of State—
(a)for securing that, where a grant has been made towards the erection, improvement or rebuilding of a dwelling-house or other building, conditions with respect to the occupation and maintenance thereof shall apply thereto for such period from the completion of the work (not being longer than forty years) as may be specified in the regulations;
(b)for securing that in the event of a breach of any of the conditions the Secretary of State may recover from such person as may be specified in the regulations a sum bearing the same proportion to the grant made as the period between the date of the breach of the condition and the expiration of the period specified under paragraph (a) of this subsection bears to the last-mentioned period, together with interest on such sum from the date on which the grant was made at such rate as may be specified in the regulations;
(c)for providing that the conditions applied by the regulations to, a dwelling-house or building shall cease to apply on payment to the Secretary of State by such person as may be specified in the regulations of such amount as may be so specified;
(d)for applying, subject to any necessary modifications, in relation to a dwelling-house or building towards the erection, improvement or rebuilding of which a grant has been made under this section, the provisions of subsections (1) to (3) of section one hundred and three of the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1950 (which restrict the compensation payable in respect of improvements, and prohibit increases in the rents of houses in respect of which assistance has been granted under section one hundred of that Act);
(e)for securing that, where any conditions apply to a dwelling-house or building by virtue of the regulations, the Secretary of State shall cause to be recorded in the appropriate Register of Sasines a notice in a form prescribed by the regulations specifying the conditions which by virtue of the regulations apply to the dwelling-house or building ; and that, where such conditions cease so to apply, the Secretary of State shall cause to be so recorded a notice in a form prescribed as aforesaid stating that the conditions no longer apply to the dwelling-house or building;
(f)for such other incidental and supplementary matters as appear to the Secretary of State to be requisite or expedient for the purposes aforesaid.
(5)No assistance by way of grant shall be given under subsection (2) of this section towards the erection, improvement or rebuilding of any dwelling-house or other building if assistance out of public moneys by way of grant or subsidy has been given under any other enactment towards such erection, improvement or rebuilding.
(6)For the purposes of subsection (2) of this section the occupier of a holding constituted under the Congested Districts (Scotland) Act, 1897, on land acquired by the Congested Districts (Scotland) Commissioners, who is also the owner of the holding, shall be deemed to be a crofter.
(7)A person shall not be disqualified for receiving assistance under subsection (2) of this section by reason only that after he has applied for and the Secretary of State has undertaken to provide such assistance he has become the owner of the croft in respect of which the application was made.
(8)Subsection (8) of section one hundred and subsection (6) of section one hundred and eleven of the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1950, and subsection (5) of section three of the Housing (Scotland) Act, 1952 (which subsections prohibit the giving of assistance under the said sections in respect of the provision or improvement of a house if assistance has been given in respect thereof under any of the enactments respectively mentioned in the said subsections), shall have effect as if any reference therein to section seventy-seven of the Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948, included a reference to subsection (2) of this section.