§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the assumptions on which he arrived at the estimate, contained in the financial memorandum to the Housing Bill, of an increase of £72 million in expenditure on rent allowance.
§ Mr. StanleyThe estimates in paragraph 25 of the memorandum can only be indicative of the broad order of magnitude of possible additional rent allowance payments when the relevant provisions may have come into full effect. The two main assumptions underlying these estimates were that there are some 200,000 controlled tenancies in existence and that fair rents will be increased on800W re-registration by rent officers at roughly the current rate. The estimates include allowances paid indirectly via supplementary benefit.