§ 23. Mr. Peter Hardyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what 398 arrangements will be made to allow reconsideration by rent officers and the assessment panel of their recent decisions in respect of the rents of those houses in Brecks and Wickersley areas of the Rotherham Rural District for which the owner has received subsidies under the provisions of the Housing Act, 1924.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Paul Channon)The Rent Act, 1968, stops a rent officer from entertaining an application for the registration of a fair rent for any dwelling to which a condition as to rent imposed under the Housing Act, 1924, is attached. If a rent officer nevertheless registers a rent for such a dwelling in ignorance that a condition is in force, the registration is of no effect.
§ Mr. HardyIs it not the case that immediately a 40-year subsidy period has ended a fair rent could be established which would completely ignore the subsidy which the owner had received? Since the owner will not. during the 40 years' previous life of the house, have met anything like the cost of providing and maintaining it, is not the tenant entitled to expect the fair rent to be just and equitable? Should it not take note of the subsidy which the owner has received during the previous 40 years?
§ Mr. ChannonI will look at what the hon. Gentleman has said, but I cannot agree with his premise. What is right is that there should be fair rents registered for dwellings in the regulated sector, and this is what will happen to the dwellings he has dealt with in this very unusual situation.