§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, pursuant to the oral statement of 5 December 2001,Official Report, column 136WH, (a) how he has calculated his assessment that the rents of one council tenant in five will fall under his rent restructuring proposals, (b) what assessment he has made of the regional variations in this figure and (c) what proportion of tenants in RSL properties he estimates will see a fall in real term rents as a result of his policies. [23077]
§ Ms Keeble(a) The assessment that the rents of one council tenant in five will fall in real terms under our restructuring proposals was an estimate based upon modelling using the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) database.
(b) Estimates from the EHCS database suggest that the proportion of council tenants whose rents fall in real terms varies from around one in 15 in Yorkshire and the Humber to almost one in three in London.
224W(c) We expect the proportion of tenants in RSL properties who see a fall in rents in real terms as a result of our policies to be somewhat higher than that of council tenants.
For both sectors the actual figure will depend upon the rent-setting decisions of individual landlords.