Agriculture Act 1967

48 Promotion of amalgamations and boundary adjustments by Rural Development Boards.

(1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 46 of this Act, a Rural Development Board shall have power to acquire by agreement, hold and dispose of land in their area for the purpose of effecting amalgamations of agricultural land and reshaping agricultural units, and power for the said purposes to enter into transactions involving loss, including— (a) amalgamating holdings of land in a way which renders less valuable, or useless, any buildings or equipment on any of the land, (b) allowing the occupier of an uncommercial unit to retain occupation of a dwelling-house on the land when the remainder of the unit is acquired by the Board for the purposes of amalgamation, (c) selling land resulting from an amalgamation effected by the Board subject to depreciatory conditions imposed for the purpose of ensuring that the land continues to be held in single ownership and single occupation for agricultural purposes. (2) A deed by which a Rural Development Board conveys land, or an estate or interest in land, may apply Schedule 3 to this Act to any of that land, and to any other land, but only if all the persons who will have an estate or interest in the land to which Schedule 3 is so applied have executed the deed; and in that Schedule as so applied “relevant Exchequer payments” shall mean such amounts as are specified in the deed for the purposes of this subsection under the heads of:— (a) the incidental costs incurred by the Board in acquiring and disposing of the land, estate or interest conveyed by the deed, being costs consisting of surveyor’s fees and legal costs, stamp duty on any conveyance, lease, tenancy agreement or mortgage or heritable security and any compensation for disturbance under section 60(2)(a) of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 or section 43 of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991, (b) any such loss as is described in subsection (1) of this section incurred by the Board in dealing with the land, estate or interest so conveyed, including any reduction in the purchase price obtained by them on the transaction effected by the deed in consequence of the depreciatory conditions contained in the deed, (c) such sum as the appropriate Minister may certify as the sum representing his administrative expenses (including an appropriate proportion of overhead expenses and other fixed or general expenses) incurred in connection with the transaction to which the deed gives effect, and “relevant date” means the date on which the transaction to which the deed relates takes effect. (3) Where under section 27(1)(b) or (c) of this Act a scheme under that section authorises the making of grant by reference to arrangements made or approved by a Rural Development Board, the Rural Development Board shall repay to the appropriate Minister the amount of any grant paid by the appropriate Minister under the scheme by reference to any such arrangements. (4) Case H in Part I of Schedule 3 to the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 shall apply in relation to a Rural Development Board as it applies in relation to the Minister within the meaning of that Act. (5) In relation to any tenancy certified by a Rural Development Board in the instrument by which the tenancy is granted as being a tenancy granted in connection with transactions entered into by the Board for the purpose of effecting amalgamations of agricultural land and reshaping agricultural units, section 14 of the Rent Act 1977 and section 5 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1971 (exclusion of local authority houses from Rent Acts) shall apply to the Rural Development Board as they apply to the council of a county or other local authority.