§ 1. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the approximate increase in annual income from rents since the Rent Act, 1957.
§ 33. Mr. Liptonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to what extent annual income from rents has increased since the Rent Act, 1957.
§ The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. John Boyd-Carpenter)Income from rent of land dwellings and other buildings rose from £763 million in 1956 to £1,176 million in 1961. The income is reckoned before providing for depreciation. The figures are estimated according to the definitions used in the National Income Blue Books.
§ Mr. AllaunIs not that a staggering figure? Is it not a fact that, each year, the millions of pounds transferred from the tenants' to the landlords' pockets will still further increase, as more and more houses become decontrolled through change of tenants, unless the Rent Act is amended? Will he give this matter serious attention?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterI do not think that the hon. Member has fully understood the figures that I gave him. Of the figure of £1,176 million, two-fifths goes to the public authorities, and some 250 part of 'the remainder is what is called imputed rent in respect of owner-occupied houses. Of the total, the proportion of domestic income represented by rents is 5 per cent., compared with 9½ per cent. before the war.
§ Mr. LiptonHowever much the Minister may try to whittle down the effect of these figures, do not they provide clear evidence of the fantastic extent to which the community is being held to ransom by a privileged minority of greedy landlords? Is it any use telling tenants of decontrolled houses that the incomes of their landlords have risen only by 5 per cent. or 10 per cent., as the Minister is trying to make out, when the increase is nothing less than blood money?
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterIn putting his supplementary question the hon. Member is not facing the fact that the percentage of income represented by rents is little more than half what it was before the war.