HC Deb 19 February 1962 vol 654 c11
22. Mr. Lipton

asked the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance what was the average weekly rent paid by couples in receipt of National Assistance during each of the past four years.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

This figure is not yet available for the end of 1961. For the end of the three previous years the figures were 19s. 4d., 20s. 1d., and 21s. 2d.

Mr. Lipton

Is it not quite clear from these figures that the 1957 Rent Act has already cost the National Assistance Board anything from £1 million upwards, which has gone, not to the unfortunate recipients of National Assistance, but to their landlords?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

It so happens that the figures for the years which the hon. Gentleman selected show rather more substantial increases in local authority rents than in those exacted by private landlords.

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