Member

In effect, the Crown Estate is seeking to make a profit on the backs of leaseholders, who are being offered the freehold at a far higher price than they would have had to pay had their freeholder not disappeared. That is what the Crown Estate believes, but what does the Minister think? How does he begin to defend what I have just said? In his Written Answer to me, published today, the Minister confirms that we will have a new “draft Memorandum of Understanding” between his department and the Crown Estate. The solution is for that document to make it clear that the Acts of Parliament apply when the Crown disposes of freeholds under the process of escheat. I look forward to his reply and to the views of others who had the patience to listen to what I have just said. I make it clear that I will come back to this on Report if there is no satisfactory resolution before then.