§ Thank you for your letter of 12th June together with supplementary information in support of your request for an indication of whether a direction is likely to be issued in due course under what is now Clause 62(4) of the Housing Finance Bill in respect of the increase towards fair rents in October, 1972 which your council would be required to make under Part VI of the Bill.
§ It is noted that your Council have made a preliminary assessment of the fair rent of all council dwellings in the light of the age, type, general condition, character, location and size of the dwellings and that in addition the Council compared their assessments with estimates made by the Rent Officer. While we would not necessarily agree with all the estimates made in your letter, it does appear to us, having considered the information provided by your Council, that, if no direction were given under Clause 62(4), it is likely that the increase towards fair rents of £1 per week for each qualifying dwelling which your Council would be required to make in the year 1972–73 would result in the rents of more than 2 per cent, of those dwellings being substantially above the fair rents for those dwellings. To avoid the likelihood of this result it would appear that the amount of that increase towards fair rents (which is an average amount) should be less than £1 per week, so as to enable your Council to distribute or apportion the increase as may be necessary within the maximum of £1 per week for any individual dwelling permitted under the Bill.
§ Accordingly, the Secretary of State would be willing, when the Bill is in force, to give a direction under Clause 62(4) that your Council's increase towards fair rents in the year 1972–73 should be 35p per week. That direction will not affect the fair rents to be determined for your Council's Housing Revenue Account dwellings. The determination of fair rents is not a matter for the Secretary of State but is the responsibility of the housing authority and the rent scrutiny board in accordance with Part V of the Bill. Nor will the direction relate to the amount of any increase towards fair rents for the Council's qualifying dwellings in 1973–74, or subsequent years