§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy on the control of business rents.
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§ Mr. CroslandThe Government have considered further the freeze on business rents, which is now widely regarded as affecting parts of the economy in ways that even the previous Government can hardly have envisaged when they imposed it. Much savings and pensions money, for example, depends on the income from commercial property, which also constitutes an important credit base for industry.
The Government, through their land legislation, are acting to secure to the community the values in development which hitherto have gone to the speculator. A healthy market in commercial property is necessary for the achievement of the Government's social and economic objectives.
The Government have now decided that the time has come to bring the existing control to an end, subject to reasonable notice to sitting tenants. An order under the Counter-Inflation Act 1973 will accordingly be laid to provide that the freeze ends on 1st February 1975 throughout the United Kingdom, but in such a way that no business tenant paying a rent frozen below the contractual level on that date can have his rent increased until the landlord has given notice as the order will provide. The prescribed period of notice will allow these rents to be increased to the contractual level three months from today.