The Secretary of State may with the consent of the Treasury and after consultation with such associations of local authorities as appear to the Secretary of State to be concerned and with any local authority with whom consultation appears to him to be desirable, make regulations providing for the payment to local authorities for any year of grants of such amounts, and payable over such periods and subject to such conditions, as may be determined by or under the regulations in respect of expenditure incurred by those authorities (whether before or after the passing of this Act) in or in connection with the acquisition of land approved for the purposes of the regulations, being land required for or in connection with—
or in respect of expenditure so incurred in or in connection with the clearing or preliminary development of such land.
For the purposes of regulations under this section land appropriated by a local authority (whether before or after the passing of this Act) for use for purposes described in subsection (1) of this section may be treated as acquired by that authority for those purposes at a cost of such amount, and defrayed in such manner, as may be determined by or under the regulations.
Provision may be made by regulations under this section—
and for the purposes of this section "clearing" and "preliminary development" means the carrying out of such works as may be prescribed by or determined under the regulations.
In this section " year " means a period of twelve months beginning with the first day of April.