Small Landlords Association (Hansard, 2 July 1975)

§ 24. Mr. McCrindle
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has recently received from the Small Landlords Association.

§ Mr. Freeson
My right hon. Friend has received copies of a petition from the association to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, and a letter sent to some hon. Members.

§ Mr. McCrindle
Does the Minister share the anxiety of the smaller landlords about the work of the Rent Act 1974? Is he satisfied that an adequate amount of privately-rented accommodation is coming on to the market as a result of that Act? Does he agree that the increasingly worrying problem of squatting is considered by many to flow diirectly from the Rent Act 1974?

§ Mr. Freeson
There is an argument of disbenefit or benefit in legislation of this kind. It would help if hon. Members did not make exaggerated statements. To suggest that the squatting problem has arisen since August last year when the 1466 Act went on to the statute book is a little nonsensical. Squatting has been a major and growing problem for a long time in various parts of our towns and cities. The purpose of the Act was not to increase the flow on to the market of additional privately-rented accommodation. Its purpose was to establish security of tenure. It is true that there is a small amount of indicative evidence that some people, largely because of the scare-mongering which occurred last autumn as a result of the Opposition's tactics, withdrew some of their accommodation from the market. It is also true that a considerable amount of rented accommodation has been held on the market because tenants have security and cannot be removed so that those properties may be sold off the market.

§ Mr. Snape
Is my hon. Friend aware that there has been so little evidence of withdrawal of properties from the market that the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi) has resorted to writing begging letters to a newspaper asking poor, hard-up, deprived landlords to contact him so that he may have some evidence to produce to the House?

§ Mr. Freeson
My attention has been drawn to a letter. It is several months since I asked the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi), who is Opposition spokesman on housing, to give me the file in which he alleged he had evidence that a great deal of rented accommodation had left the market as a result of the Act. If all his allegations in the Press and elsewhere are as sound as he suggests, it is strange that he did not vote against the Rent Bill when it was going through the House.

§ Mr. Rossi
Does the Minister recall that when I called to see him at his Department recently he refused to accept from me a number of letters from people who were complaining of the effects of the Rent Act? Has he not refused to conduct an independent inquiry into the operation of the Rent Act, as a result of which I have been forced to conduct my own inquiry by inviting both landlords and tenants to write to say what are the effects of the Act? I assure the hon. Gentleman that he will receive the full benefit of that inquiry in due course. In the meantime there is overwhelming evidence that the effect of the Rent Act has 1467 been to drive small landlords to bed-and-breakfast accommodation letting, and towards a preference for foreign visitors rather than British subjects, so that our people are suffering from the Minister's legislation, and he refuses to have the courage to admit that he was wrong.

§ Mr. Freeson
The hon. Gentleman has said that he has collected evidence which he will let me have. I have been asking for that evidence for some months. The hon. Gentleman ends up by saying, when I am still waiting for the evidence, that there is overwhelming evidence to support what he has said. I shall be glad to receive that overwhelming evidence. I should like to correct a terminological inexactitude which the hon. Gentleman has put before the House. The hon. Gentleman called at the Department in accompanying a number of Members from certain South-West constituencies to deal with specific problems relating to their constituencies. He attempted to turn that constituency representation into a general harangue about the Act. I stated that it was not the occasion for that but that he was welcome to give me the file separately and we would examine it on another occasion as soon as it was received. I am still waiting for it.

§ Mr. Cyril Smith
Since we understand that a Labour Government will allow a substantial rise in council house rents next year, can we assume that the same percentage rise will be allowed to private landlords?

§ Mr. Freeson
Private landlords operate under the Rent Acts of 1965, 1968 and 1974.

Hon. Members
Answer.

§ Mr. Evelyn King
As one of the Members to whom the Minister referred a few moments ago who went to see him at his Department, may I ask the hon. Gentleman whether he now contemplates any action as regards the short-period tenant at a seaside resort who stays on beyond the limit of his tenancy, thereby spoiling the holidays of those who should succeed him and often ruining landladies who have put their life savings into the provision of holiday accommodation? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the number of cases in which this is happening is now put on reliable information at 1468 a seaside resort, at 10 per cent. and that it is growing at a rapid rate? Will he consider this isolated question in the context of the considerable hardship that is experienced by my constituents and the constituents of many other Members representing seaside constituencies?

§ Mr. Freeson
As he has said, the hon. Gentleman raised with me the particular kinds of case to which he has referred. He did not bring evidence to support the allegation of this kind of case having a 10 per cent. impact in the constituencies concerned. If he has that evidence, I shall be glad to receive it. As regards the question of taking legal action against tenants who are in breach of their contract in the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman has described, I undertook to consider the legal aspects in consultation with the Lord Chancellor's office and I shall be doing that. We have already taken a certain measure to improve the position of landlords in similar situations in the very Act that is now being attacked.