§ 63. Mr. Sorensenasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he is aware 105W that householders and tenants who have exchanged dwellings by arrangement between two local authorities may thus be liable to occupy decontrolled property and therefore to substantial rent increases, without appreciating this at the time of the exchange; to what extent this has been brought to his notice by local authorities; and what advice he has given to local authorities regarding this danger and the need to safeguard tenants whose exchange of dwellings they have effected.
§ Mr. H. BrookeDwellings owned by local authorities have never come within rent control. Decontrol therefore can only occur where an exchange affecting a private landlord's tenancy is involved. Local authorities are occasionally able to arrange such exchanges, though not so often as I should like to see. and machinery for preserving the controlled status of the private tenancy in such cases exists in Section 17 of the Rent Act, 1957. Local authorities have not suggested to me that the position referred to in the Question is giving rise to difficulties.