I am obliged to the right hon. Gentleman, and I was going on to deal with that point. Of course, as he will appreciate, and as the House will appreciate, the validity of his argument is based on compensation being inadequate, because there is no such hardship in a new purchaser being bought out if he is to get fair, full and adequate compensation.

The bad thing about designation is not the fact that it is done in order to give some fair warning, but that it has overreached itself, in that the fair warning looks too far ahead. It is not only that. The technical designation—I have to be a little technical at this point—for compulsory purchase is limited to 10 years. But as the House will appreciate, in addition to designation, it is customary to programme the land in a development plan, and that programming period goes up to 20 years and sometimes more.

When we have a land programmed for a public improvement, even in 20 years. value is struck off the land straight away. It is important to reduce the period of programming, particularly as the programming at this stage generally covers far more land than will ultimately be required. This matter has been dealt with authoritatively by Mr. Michael Rowe, Q.C. Some hon. Members know of his great experience in having had the forensic duty of promoting the County Council of London Development Plan.

I wish to say a final word on the subject of compensation. There are three elements in compensation for the compulsory acquisition of land: the value of the land taken; damage to the remaining land by reason of the severance of the land taken; and disturbance. The law as to disturbance, I venture to think, is quite satisfactory, but the law as to the value of the land or property taken, as my hon. Friend has said, does not work so well.

The House will recall the stages through which the code of compensation has passed. In the late 19th century, it was the value to the owner plus 10 per cent. for a forced sale. After the Assessment of Compensation Act, 1919,compensation was the market value. Now it is the existing use value plus whatever remains of what is called the unexpended balance of development value. In other words, what is left of the admitted claim for loss of development value under the 1947 Act. The difficulty is that it is unlikely, and will become increasingly unlikely, that the sum of the existing use value and the development value will approximate to the market value, for various reasons.

Many people do not make a claim at all, as we know. As my hon. Friend pointed out in referring to the "Pilgrim Clause," Section 35 of the 1954 Act, is purely discretionary. Secondly, if they did make a claim, it may have been excluded under the so-called de minimis provisions of the 1947 Act. Thirdly, where they have an admitted claim, it is anchored back to 1947 conditions and values. As long as we get the development value anchored back to those past conditions, the greater the gulf between market value and compensation as time goes on.

We shall have more and more cases of people buying land or property in good faith at market value and then being dispossessed at something less than what they pay for it, and less than its value in the ordinary market. Therefore, I think that sooner or later Parliament will have to look once again at this code of compensation. I hope that it will be sooner rather than later, and that we shall not have to wait for someone to hang himself before attention is directed to this matter.

I must apologise for having detained the House for longer than my wont; but I plead, in extenuation, that this is a subject in which I have taken considerable interest and to which I have given considerable thought. It is of great importance that Parliament should seek to find a solution which will reconcile, so far as may be, public interest with private rights.