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Lords amendment: No. 40, in page 29, line 6, leave out from "information" to end of line 8 and insert
as may be so specified with respect to rents under assured tenancies which have been the subject of, or taken into account on, references or applications to, or determinations by, rent assessment committees.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment
The amendment meets a concern expressed at an earlier stage by the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood). It increases the kinds of information about market rents that the rent assessment panel can be required to keep by the Secretary of State under clause 46. In the form in which the Bill left the House, clause 46 limited the information to be held to that relating to actual determinations made by rent assessment committees for assured tenancies. The amendment enables my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State to require the rent assessment panel to keep information derived not only from applications that result in rent determinations, but from applications that do not.
There are three circumstances in which no determination will be given. The first is when the application is withdrawn, presumably because landlord and tenant have reached an amicable agreement. The second is in the case of a short assured tenancy, when there are insufficient similar assured tenancies in an area for the rent assessment committee to make comparisons. The third case is when it is clear that the rent set by the landlord for an assured tenancy is not excessive in relation to rents for similar properties in an area. It would obviously be helpful to the rent assessment committees and to landlords and tenants to have readily available the wider pool of information about rent levels that the amendment will allow. I commend it to the House.
§ Question put and agreed to. [Special entry.]