§ Mr. Clinton Davisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the number of council tenants in England and Wales who will have to pay fair rents pursuant to the provisions outlined in Fair Deal for Housing.
§ Mr. AmeryAs explained in the Government White Paper Fair Deal for Housing (Cmnd. 4728) the Government propose to apply the principe of fair rents to local authority dwellings. This will mean that a fair rent will be determined for every dwelling that is within a local authority's Housing Revenue Account. Current rents will be progressed to the fair rents by stages so that the tenants of all those houses will in due course be liable to pay a fair rent, although many of them will receive a rebate from that rent. By the time fair rents for those dwellings are reached, some 5 million tenants will be affected but no firm estimate can be made at this stage as to how many of those tenants will be paying the rent without the help of a rebate.