HC Deb 10 April 1967 vol 744 cc741-3
37. Mr. Molloy

asked the Attorney-General if he will take steps to make legal aid available for tenants appearing before rent tribunals.

The Attorney-General

It is doubtful whether there is any need for legal aid before rent tribunals, which have operated satisfactorily without it for many years. In any event, financial circumstances make the extension of legal aid to administrative tribunals, such as rent tribunals, and rent assessment committees, impracticable at the present time.

Mr. Molloy

Will my right hon. and learned Friend recollect, with regard to the establishment of rent assessment committees, that both he and my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government have said that they are looking into this problem, because hon. Members on both sides of the House will agree that tenants are being put in an unfair situation? The Act, which was designed to help tenants, is not doing so. What is worse, many people think that the Act of Parliament has been drafted and biased against them as tenants when the idea was to help them.

The Attorney-General

I cannot agree with my hon. Friend that the Rent Act that was passed by this Administration has not been helpful to tenants. On the contrary, it has been of immense value to them and has given them protection which did not previously exist. The real need in regard to rent assessment tribunals would seem to be in the field of expert assistance, and the appropriate surveyors' societies are now, in co-operation with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government, looking into this aspect of the matter.

Mr. Lipton

Does not my right hon. and learned Friend realise that it is a bit late in the day to start negotiating with the surveyor's organisations? Is he not further aware that many tenants feel that the dice are loaded against them and, for that reason, they are afraid to go to the assessment committees?

The Attorney-General

I have no evidence of such fear. The rent assessment committees have been considerably used and are producing very good results from the tenants' point of view.