GHF-E090-N16 — 22 May 1980: House of Commons, Ted Rowlands MP on Western Ground Rents and the BP pension fund (Hansard)
Wiki catalogue reference: GHF-E090-N16 · Custodian / source URL: Buckler family evidence repository
Evidence preview
1. The evidence
Catalogue UID: GHF-E090-N16 · Custodian/source copy: open source object. Preview and provenance status as at 10-10-2026.
Description
Catalogue: GHF-E090-N16 · Date: 22 May 1980 · Publication: Hansard, HC Deb 22 May 1980, vol. 985, “Amendments of Leasehold Reform Act 1967 etc.” · By: Mr Edward (Ted) Rowlands MP, Merthyr Tydfil · Press Archive index
This page follows the wiki’s evidence standard: 1. the evidence (the image), 2. a verbatim transcript, 3. a description of what the item is, and 4. an interpretation of what it shows. Sections 1–3 are meant to be checkable by anyone against the image. Section 4 is open to challenge; corrections are logged under the change-control rule.
DESCRIPTION The official report of a House of Commons debate on leasehold reform during the Housing Bill’s report stage. The image is of the historic Hansard web page; the source is https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1980/may/22/amendments-of-leasehold-reform-act-1967.
Transcription
Open transcription
Transcribed exactly from the official report. Square brackets mark editorial notes. … marks omitted text.
We have had some cranky and curious ground landlords in South Wales, but the saddest aspect is that the most rapacious ground landlord, Western Ground Rents, has been bought by the BP pension fund, which is behaving in the same rapacious and, at times, unfeeling and uncaring way in handling the genuine requests of householders. Such ground landlords are prompting the growing demand for further amendments to the 1967 Act. I should like to think that if the many pensioners in the BP fund realised that it was using its power to drive harsh bargains with householders and to act tough and without feeling or care, they would not want such actions to be taken in their name. It is regrettable that a distinguished company, which is half owned by the Government, should behave in that way.
[Later in the same debate:] … I described the leasehold system as a relic of feudalism. It continued through the period of capitalism, and it is now becoming a form of corporatism. That sums up how the system has operated. An example is the BP pension fund.
Interpretation and wider context
INTERPRETATION The speech is about Western Ground Rents and the BP pension fund as ground landlords of residential leaseholds in South Wales generally. It does not mention Great House Farm, Llandough or the Williams / Buckler family. 🕒
Its relevance is context: it is a parliamentary record, from 1980, of criticism of how the BP pension fund was dealing with occupiers after acquiring Western Ground Rents, the same chain of ownership (WGR to BP Pension Trust, 31 December 1969) through which BP came to claim Great House Farm. It is not evidence about the farm itself. A family research file describes it as criticism of BP Pension Trust’s conduct; that is accurate, but it should not be presented as being about the farm. 🕒
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Interpretive assessment date: 10-10-2026.