HC Deb 05 November 1975 vol 899 cc395-7
17. Mr. Hal Miller

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the results of the departmental survey into the effects of the Rent Act 1974.

Mr. Freeson

Research has been commissioned into the detailed effects of the Act, but this will take some time to be completed.

Mr. Miller

Is the Minister aware that there is a very great deal of dissatisfaction about the operation of this Act, and that, far from contributing in any way to security of tenure—I speak from personal experience of looking for a flat—it is impossible to obtain any furnished flat, except for a very limited period, and that the supply is extraordinarily limited directly as a result of the Act?

Secondly, when are we to have the report to which the Minister has referred?

Mr. Freeson

The question related to research, and I answered that.

I think that the hon. Member will agree that the shortage of accommodation, particularly in the London area, did not start in August 1974. There was a greater loss to the private rented sector in the three and a half to four years of the previous administration than had been experienced over a period of years before. I accept that dissatisfaction has been expressed in some quarters, but there is also a great deal of satisfaction among people who now have security in their homes.

Mr. Snape

Will my hon. Friend accept that a great many tenants will be deeply grateful to the Government for passing the Rent Act 1974? Will he tell the House whether he has yet received the missing file from the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi), who is still seeking evidence of the destructive effects of the Act in relation to the private landlord? Will my hon. Friend also accept that many of us here are not interested in the protests of the landlords' apologists on the Opposition side?

Mr. Freeson

I received the missing file, which the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi) had been promising me for a year, a month or two back. It consisted of a little over 400 letters, which are still in process of being examined closely. However, on first analysis it is clear that more than 200 of them relate to matters that have nothing to do with the Rent Act 1974, and that most of the other 200 relate to matters on which people have been misinformed, partly due to the activities of the hon. Member for Hornsey.

Mr. Rossi

I cannot possibly accept that. Is the Minister aware that the letters he has received were sent as a result of advertisements in a limited number of newspapers in the Greater London area, that they were passed on to the hon. Gentleman within a short period of the replies to those advertisements being received by me, and that therefore what he has said is misleading, to say the least?

Concerning the evidence, will he not accept that those letters, from a limited sample, all show that there has been considerable reluctance to let on the part of private landlords because of the unfairness of the law towards them at the moment? Will he accept that that is the general message coming through quite clearly from those letters?

Finally, will the departmental survey include an inquiry into the situation of students, about whom we have been promised legislation, which has not been forthcoming?

Mr. Freeson

The survey does not relate to any specific group occupying furnished accommodation, though no doubt students and other single people will be involved.

Our information via my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science is that the position of students is not as serious as some people, including the hon. Gentleman, had feared a year or so ago, despite one or two statements to the contrary, which are still being received. The evidence is that there is no demand or need for such legislation. However, if the position changes and I receive further information from my right hon. Friend, I shall certainly look at the matter again.

I stand by what I said earlier about the survey of the file sent to me by the hon. Gentleman. I add only the further point that nobody has ever denied—I certainly have not—that there is some reluctance to let on the part of landlords in situations where there is legislation controlling their activities. But this is outweighed by the large number of tenants, in both unfurnished and furnished accommodation, who would otherwise have been put out in order that their properties might be sold on the market.

The biggest single factor causing a reduction in the private rented sector for many years now has been the increase of owner-occupation in the old areas and a certain amount of speculation in the handling of property.