HC Deb 13 November 1962 vol 667 cc184-6
25. Dr. Alan Glyn

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will study the evidence submitted to him regarding the high rents demanded by a company, whose name has been sent to him, with particular reference to new leases and renewals at Thorncliffe Court, London, S.W.4, with a view to authorising compulsory purchase either of individual units or the whole property.

Sir K. Joseph

I have studied the evidence. It is for the local authority to decide whether to make a compulsory purchase order, and submit it to me for confirmation.

Dr. Glyn

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Would he not agree that many hon. Members on this side of the House have made similar complaints about the activities of this company? Would he not further agree that the Peachey group of companies, while acting within the law, is exploiting the scarcity market and is giving a thoroughly unsavoury name to all good landlords?

Sir K. Joseph

I have to preserve a careful impartiality when compulsory purchase orders may be submitted to me, but I would say, seeking to be absolutely impartial, that in some cases tenants appear to be unreasonable in what they expect of their landlords. In the case of these particular landlords, it appears that they are often particularly insensitive in their relations with tenants.

Mr. M. Stewart

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that some of the answers he is giving today are difficult to square with that reputation for impartiality? When the Minister invites local authorities to make compulsory purchase orders they will remember how he has treated some local authorities which have tried to prevent extortion. He has laid down the doctrine that the landlord is entitled to push up a rent according to the income of the tenant so that, when he has done that, the high rent which that landlord charges may be used as an excuse for neighbouring landlords to charge the same high rent.

Sir K. Joseph

The hon. Gentleman is misrepresenting what I have said. I was replying to a question on the use I have made of my power to confirm a compulsory purchase order. In this field, compulsory purchase orders have been confirmed where there is an exorbitant rent and the threat of homelessness. Obviously, in judging whether there is a threat of homelessness, the capacity of tenants to find other accommodation within their means in a neighbouring area must be taken into account.

Mr. Callaghan

Does not the Minister recall that he told us that private landlords may certainly pay some regard to the means of their tenants in fixing rents? In this connection, to what extent does the right hon. Gentleman think that a landlord is entitled to take tenants' means into account?

Sir K. Joseph

I can best answer that in two stages. Firstly, I think that I was referring—and I hope that I was careful to refer—not to the landlord's attitude primarily but to my attitude in deciding whether to confirm a compulsory purchase order. Secondly, where a landlord has property in a scarcity area and is dealing with tenants who wish to live in an area where property of that sort is scarce, he must assume that the tenants draw an implication of the rent they will have to pay.

Mr. Callaghan

Is the Minister saying that a private landlord should not take into account a tenant's means when he is fixing the economic rent for the property which he proposes to let?

Sir K. Joseph

The landlord will take into account the market value of the property in the neighbourhood. I hope that he will also take into account, when moving from the distorted rent situation of a controlled market into a free market, giving his tenants, where they need it, time of transition in which to adjust.