Universities and College Estates Act 1925

33 Power to sell advowsons, &c

(1) Arrangements may be made under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to enable a university or college—

(a) to sell any benefices, with or without cure of souls, rights of patronage, impropriate rectories, or any other lands or hereditaments annexed or belonging to or held, either wholly or partly by, or in trust for, the university or college, or the head or other member of the college;

(b) to sell rights of patronage of benefices, the patronage whereof is vested in any person in trust for the university or college, or for the benefit of the head or any other member of the college;

(c) to invest the proceeds of any such sale in the purchase of land in fee simple or any parliamentary or public stocks or funds of Great Britain or other securities, to be settled, held, applied, and disposed of in such manner as may be arranged and determined by the university or college and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with proper provision, in cases where the benefice is annexed or, belongs to or is held in trust for, the head or other member of the college, for the payment of the interest thereof to the head or such other member of the college upon his resigning the benefice; and

(d) to annex the whole or any part of the endowments belonging to any such benefice being a benefice without cure of souls or impropriate rectory, or other lands or hereditaments as aforesaid, or to apply the proceeds of sale thereof, or to apply the proceeds of sale of any rights of patronage, or any part thereof, whether made under this section or otherwise, or any money, stocks, funds, or securities belonging to the university or college, or to any head or to any other member thereof, by way of endowment or augmentation of any benefice with cure of souls, the patronage whereof belongs to, or is held in trust for, or for the benefit of, the university or college or the head or other member of the college :

Provided that the powers conferred by this section shall not be exercised to the prejudice of the existing interest oi any such head or other member of a college without his consent; and in case of any diminution being occasioned in the income of any such head or other member of a college by any sale, annexation, purchase, or investment that may be made under the provisions of this section, arrangements may be made under the authority of the said Commissioners for giving to such head or other member adequate compensation for such diminution of his income out of the revenues of the college, or out of the proceeds of any such sale or investment.

(2) Every endowment or augmentation which may be made by a university or college of any benefice with cure of souls under the authority of this section, or by virtue of the provisions of the [1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 45.] Augmentation of Benefices Act, 1831, or any other Act shall be valid notwithstanding the clear annual value of such benefice may at the time of such endowment or augmentation exceed or be thereby made to exceed the limits prescribed by section sixteen of the said Act of 1831 or by any other Act:

Provided that no such augmentation or endowment beyond the clear annual value of five hundred pounds shall be made under the said Act of 1831 except with the consent of the said Commissioners in addition to such other consents as may be otherwise required thereto.

(3) On the sale or annexation under this section of any benefice without cure of souls, or of any impropriate rectory to which any right of patronage belongs, such right of patronage, if not intended to be included in such sale or to accompany such annexation, shall immediately after such sale or annexation be separated from and be no longer exercised by the holder of such benefice without cure of souls, or impropriate rectory, but shall by force of this Act be absolutely transferred to and vested in the university or college, the former patrons or owners of the benefice or impropriate rectory.

(4) For the purposes of this section the expression " benefice " includes any canonry, ecclesiastical rectory, prebend, or other preferment.

(5) Any authority or consent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners under this or the next succeeding section shall be evidenced in writing under their common seal.