Horticulture Act 1960
| Year | 1960 |
Horticulture Act , 1960
(8 & 9 Eliz. 2) 22
An Act to make provision for assisting the production and marketing of horticultural produce.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Grants for horticultural improvements
1 Grants for horticultural improvements.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, the appropriate Minister may, in accordance with a scheme made by him with the approval of the Treasury, make—
(a ) to the person carrying on a horticultural production business,
(b ) to the landlord of land in England or Wales occupied for the purposes of such a business and being or comprised in an agricultural holding within the meaning of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1948, or land in Scotland so occupied and being or comprised in an agricultural holding within the meaning of the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1949, a holding to which any of the provisions of the Small Landholders (Scotland) Acts, 1886 to 1931, apply or a croft within the meaning of the Crofters (Scotland) Act, 1955,
a grant of an amount equal to one-third of the amount of expenditure reasonably incurred by him in the carrying out of approved proposals for the provision of specified facilities for the purposes of the business.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, the appropriate Minister may, in accordance with such a scheme as aforesaid, make to the person carrying on a horticultural producers' marketing business a grant of an amount equal to one-third of the amount of expenditure reasonably incurred by him in the carrying out of approved proposals for the provision of specified facilities for the storage, preparation for market or transport of horticultural produce in the course of the business.
(3) References in this Part of this Act to the provision of specified facilities are references to the provision or improvement of buildings, plant or equipment of a kind specified in the scheme, or the carrying out of work of a kind so specified, and include, in so far as the scheme so provides, the provision of shelter belts and the provision as well as the removal of hedges.
(4) In this section ‘approved proposals’ means proposals approved by the appropriate Minister, and without prejudice to any other grounds for withholding approval the Minister shall not under this section approve any proposals unless he is satisfied that the cost of carrying them out will not be unreasonably high in relation to the benefit derived from them in the carrying on of the business mentioned in subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section, as the case may be.
(5) Where the applicant satisfies the appropriate Minister, at any time before that Minister has determined whether to approve his proposals, that the cost of the proposals has been increased by their being designed both for the provision of specified facilities as mentioned in subsection (1) or (2) of this section and for other purposes, and agrees with the Minister what proportion of the cost is to be treated as referable to the provision of specified facilities as aforesaid, then—
(a ) regard shall be had only to that proportion of the cost for the purposes of the foregoing subsection, and
(b ) in relation to those proposals references in this Part of this Act to expenditure reasonably incurred in carrying them out, or expenditure in respect of which grant would be payable, shall be construed as references to that proportion of such expenditure.
(6) The appropriate Minister may reduce or withhold any grant under this section in any case where assistance in respect of the provision of the facilities is given under any other Act of Parliament.
(7) A scheme under this section (in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘a scheme’) may be made for England and Wales, for Scotland, for Northern Ireland, or for any two or all of those parts of the United Kingdom jointly.
2 Supplemental provisions as to schemes.
(1) Grants under the foregoing section (in this section referred to as ‘grants’) shall not be payable unless application is made therefor in accordance with the scheme, and a scheme may provide that no grant shall be payable on any one application if the expenditure in respect of which the grant would be payable, as estimated by the appropriate Minister at the time of approval, is less than such amount as may be specified in the scheme.
(2) A scheme may provide that in such cases as may be specified therein grants shall be payable by such instalments and over such period as may be specified in the scheme.
(3) A scheme may provide that the payment of grants, or of instalments of grants, shall be subject to compliance with such conditions, whether as to the capacity of the business, determined in accordance with the scheme, the security of tenure of the land on which any facilities are to be provided, the carrying out of the proposals in question in a proper manner and within a reasonable time, or any other matter, as may be specified by or under the scheme.
(4) Where any such condition as to capacity is framed by reference to land occupied for the purposes of a horticultural production business, the scheme may provide that if there is any land so occupied which is not eligible to be taken into account in ascertaining whether the condition is satisfied,—
(a ) in so far as the benefit to be derived from any proposals is attributable to that land, it shall be disregarded for the purposes of subsection (4) of the foregoing section;
(b ) where the applicant satisfies the appropriate Minister, at any time before that Minister has determined whether to approve his proposals, that the cost of the proposals has been increased by their being designed for the provision of specified facilities both for the said land and for land which is eligible to be taken into account as aforesaid, and agrees with the Minister what proportion of the cost is to be treated as referable to the eligible land, paragraphs (a ) and (b ) of subsection (5) of the foregoing section shall apply in relation to that proportion.
(5) A scheme may contain such incidental and supplemental provisions as appear to the appropriate Minister expedient for the purposes of the scheme.
(6) A scheme may make different provisions for different cases or classes of case.
(7) A scheme may be varied or revoked by a subsequent scheme.
3 Standard costs.
3. The appropriate Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, by regulations fix a standard cost for any operation falling within subsection (1) or (2) of section one of this Act; and if an applicant for a grant under that section in respect of an operation specified in the regulations so elects at any time before the appropriate Minister has determined whether to approve his proposals, and his proposals are approved while the regulations are in force, then so far as that operation is concerned the standard cost shall be substituted for actual or estimated cost for the purposes of subsections (1) or (2) and (4) of section one and subsection (1) of section two of this Act.
4 Other grants for promoting co-operative horticultural marketing.
4. The appropriate Minister may, in such manner and subject to such conditions as he may with the approval of the Treasury determine, make grants to bodies of persons engaged or proposing to become engaged in organising, promoting or developing the carrying on of horticultural producers' marketing businesses towards their expenditure incurred in the carrying out of programmes, approved by the appropriate Minister, for encouraging or facilitating the setting up of such businesses or promoting efficiency in the carrying on thereof.
5 Aggregate amount of grants, and time for application therefor.
(1) The aggregate amount of the grants under this Part of this Act shall not exceed eight million pounds or, if the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State by order made with the approval of the Treasury so direct, eight million two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
(2) The aggregate amount of the grants under the foregoing section shall not exceed one hundred thousand pounds.
(3) No grant shall be payable under section one of this Act unless the application therefor has been duly made before the expiration of five years from the earliest date on which a scheme was in operation:
Provided that the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State may by order made with the approval of the Treasury extend the...
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