§ THE EARL OF MIDLETONMy Lords, I beg to ask the noble Marquess the Leader of the House a question which he has told me it will be convenient for him to answer upon private notice. My question is whether any estimate can be given of the number of business premises which will come under the Landlord and Tenant Bill and whether any statistics exist as to the number of those premises which are subject to the Rent Restrictions Act.
§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY)My Lords, I am very much obliged to my noble friend for having adopted the method he has adopted of putting his question by private notice rather than putting it on the Paper for to-morrow, when it would have interfered with the debate on the Prayer Book Measure. I am afraid, however, I have no means of giving him a very definite reply. There are, as far as can be ascertained some 2,000,000 business premises within the meaning of Part I of the Bill, but my noble friend is well aware that no such business premises will be affected by the provisions of the Bill except where it is alleged that there has been an improvement carried out by the tenant which has added to the letting value of the premises, or that goodwill has been created by the tenant and remains attached to the premises at the determination of the tenancy. As regards the number of those premises which come under the Rent Restrictions Act, my noble friend knows that the essential condition is that the premises form part of a dwellinghouse which is itself covered by the Rent Restrictions Act. Included in this condition are the provisions that 829 the premises must be under a certain value and must have been erected before the year 1919. As to what figure the number thus limited amounts to I have made careful inquiry, but there does not appear to be any kind of information in the Public Departments which would enable me to give an answer to my noble friend.