My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Maxwell) has made an eloquent speech on behalf of his farming constituents and I fully recognise that this question of compensation is bound to cause them concern. Nor is it only a local problem. My right hon. Friend recognises that it is a national problem, since development proposals will inevitably be made elsewhere which will mean loss of land for tenant farmers. My hon. Friend mentioned 60,000 acres, which is a very high figure.

He was right not to apologise for raising the subject at this early hour as it is a very important subject when we consider the number of acres which he mentioned as likely to be taken over, much of which will be occupied by tenant farmers. The reason why compensation is very much in the mind of the farming community is that the Buckinghamshire proposal, affecting an unusual quantity of agricultural land, is under public discussion. We can all see that there will be similar proposals—indeed there are bound to be if the population goes on increasing as fast as we are told that it will.

These large new developments may strike where a few years ago it would have seemed fantastic to suggest that new towns would ever grow up; and they are bound to affect some tenants who until now have had little cause to fear dispossession or to concern themselves about: he compensation to which it would entitle them. While inter-departmental consultations always take place with a view to minimising loss of good agricultural land, we must face the fact that there will be development proposals which will cost us farming land. Compensation is, of course, payable already, and I will run briefly over the existing arrangements before speaking of the problem of improving them where land goes to development.

A private landlord always terminates a tenancy under the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1948. Public authorities, even those possessing compulsory powers, sometimes do the same. In these cases the tenant is entitled to compensation as is provided under that Act, for improvements and tenant right—with which we are not concerned today—and, under Section 34, for disturbance. This Section fixes the amount of compensation within, so to speak, a bracket—and my hon. Friend mentioned the bracket; it cannot be less than a year's rent nor more than two years' rent. Between these limits it is for the tenant to show that he should receive more than the minimum. This is one procedure.

There is an alternative, for authorities possessing compulsory powers. These authorities can and often do proceed by notice of entry. The tenant's claim for compensation is then made under legisla- tion concerning compulsory acquisition. Compensation under this procedure includes loss of profit, for it amounts to the value of the tenant's unexpired legal interest, plus the loss or injury he may sustain, whether by severance or total loss of the holding. Under this procedure, if the term of his unexpired legal interest is short, the tenant will get correspondingly less for loss of profit, and this is a point that we have very much in mind.

In addition, there is the discretionary power, which my hon. Friend mentioned, which Section 22 of the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1963 gives, but only to authorities possessing compulsory powers. This permits them to compensate a displaced tenant for the loss which, in their opinion, he will sustain to his agricultural business. It is common ground that in some cases tenant farmers who have to give up land because of development suffer financial hardship, but this is not always so. For example, if a tenant so affected—and my hon. Friend mentioned this case—happens to be on the point of retiring anyhow from farming and if he gets compensation for disturbance "according to the book", then nobody would maintain that he suffers financial hardship. On the other hand, if a tenant is in his prime and his farming is satisfactory, we all know that he is very unlikely, because of the security of tenure provisions, to have to quit unless the land is taken for non-agricultural purposes.

It has been argued that such farmers, unless it was known that early development was likely, have an expectation of continuing on their holdings which is cut short by the notice to quit for development, which of course is not contestable. and that this loss of expectation is not adequately compensated by the provisions I have mentioned. Moreover, where the portion of his holding lost is large, such a tenant will have to find other land, or even another home, and there is no denying that this is becoming more difficult to do.

This, then, is the complicated problem for which we are urgently seeking a remedy. It might be easier if we could confine our efforts to cases where tenants are dispossessed because of public development. But I do not think this would be right. Tenants also suffer hardship if they lose land because a private landlord gets permission to develop, and we would be reluctant to adopt a solution that did not place similar liabilities on public and private landlords. This is the answer to hon. Members who have suggested in the past that all would be well or much better if we simply made obligatory the discretionary power which authorities possessing compulsory powers have under the 1963 Act to compensate tenants for their loss.

A further complication arises from the fact that, as we all know, the gain to the owner is often greater where the development is for commercial purposes or for housing than if it consists of, say, a reservoir or road-widening scheme in a rural area. These are the kinds of difficulty that must be thrashed out between the Departments and other bodies concerned.

My hon. Friend would, naturally, have preferred to hear that we are ready to announce a solution. This is not so, however. Nothing effective can be done without legislation. Moreover, a solution must be found which takes into account a number of interests, not exclusively agricultural. And, of course, the bodies representative of the agricultural landlords and tenants—C.L.A. in addition to the N.F.U. and so on—who are particularly concerned, are applying their minds to the problem.

Although my hon. Friend was anxious that I should try to explain the reasons for the delay in this matter, I emphasise again that this is a very difficult problem. I have tried to pinpoint the difficulties and the discussions that are taking place. These discussions have been going on for some time. We must take into account the views of all concerned, together with the suggestions made by my hon. Friend. I assure my hon. Friend that all concerned sincerely wish to settle this matter. We will press on with a sense of urgency.