Clause 1 - Meaning of ``residential property''and other expressions
Homes Bill
11:15 am
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
I hope that the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon will have cause to see that same phenomenon during the passage of this Bill.
Amendment No. 31 is intended to exclude derelict properties from the definition of a dwelling-house, but would not do so, as I shall explain. Amendment No. 32 is intended to omit new homes, or those that are due to be constructed. Our intention is that the marketing of single dwellings for sale with vacant possession should be subject to the seller's pack obligations. There are good reasons for that, which I will come to in a moment.
The definition of a dwelling-house is crucial, and I will jump ahead to deal with the points raised by the almost perspicacious hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, who said that he could see only one reference to ``dwelling-house''—in its definition—and wondered, therefore, why it was included in the definitions. Had he looked back to clause 1(2) he would have seen, under the definition of residential property, that a residential property consists of a ``single dwelling-house''—so there is another reference. The term ``residential property'' occurs frequently in part I, and the term ``dwelling-house'' is fundamental to the definition of ``residential property''. I give him full marks for observation and hope that he is satisfied that the one appearance of the phrase that he had not spotted is crucial to that definition.