REFERENCE OF EXCESSIVE RENTS TO RENT ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE (Hansard, 9 June 1988)

§ Mr. Waldegrave
I beg to move amendment No. 35, in page 14, line 20, leave out 'similar tenancies' and insert 'assured tenancies (whether shorthold or not)'.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to consider Government amendments Nos. 36 and 37.

§ Mr. Waldegrave
These amendments relate to the basis on which the rent under a shorthold tenancy can be referred to the rent assessment committee and under which the committee can make a determination of rent under that tenancy if it considers it right. The procedure in clause 20 as drafted centres on a comparison between the rent payable under the shorthold tenancy in question and the rent payable under similar tenancies of similar dwelling houses elsewhere in the locality.
The effect would be to require that the rent payable under the shorthold be considered by reference only to rent payable under other shorthold tenancies. That point was argued in the Housing (Scotland) Bill. We have thought more about the matter and have concluded that the procedure is unnecessarily restrictive. It would seem right that, in considering the rent under a shorthold tenancy, the rent assessment committee should have the freedom to look at the evidence of other shortholds and that of the generality of assured tenancies, whether shorthold or not.
That will provide a wider frame of reference against which the shorthold rent can be assessed in particular, bearing in mind that one might expect shorthold rents to emerge at a somewhat lower level in many places than those for full assured tenancies. The new approach would 1070 enable the rent assessment committee to reduce the shorthold rent in a case where there was no evidence available in respect of other shortholds, but where it was clear that the rent in question was none the less significantly above the prevailing rent levels for assured tenancies. It would be odd if the rent assessment committee could not do that.
The procedure as amended will of course still require that the comparison be confined to tenancies of similar properties in the locality, but the change will introduce a wider degree of flexibility into the arrangements for reviewing shorthold rents. That can only work to the advantage of the shorthold tenant who has committed himself to paying rent which is clearly unreasonable in market terms. I hope on that basis that the amendment will meet with the approval of the House.

§ Mr. Grist
I beg to move amendment No. 77, in page 14, line 27, leave out 'or section 13 above'.
This is a simple drafting amendment designed to delete from clause 20(2)(a) the cross-reference to clause 13. That reference is now redundant as a result of new subsection 20(2)(b) which was inserted in Committee.

§ Mr. Grist
I beg to move amendment No. 78, in page 15, line 6, at end insert 'and, accordingly, where subsection (4) of that section applies, any reference in subsection (4)(b) above to rent is a reference to rent exclusive of the amount attributable to rates'. This is a purely technical amendment. Clause 20(5) extends to determinations of rent under clause 20 the provisions in clause 13 regarding the treatment of rates. The amendment simply inserts into clause 20 the necessary consequential reference to rates similar to a reference already included in the corresponding provision in clause 13.