HC Deb 07 July 1966 vol 731 cc94-5W
70. Mr. Emrys Hughes

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the facts that in 1965 there was an increase in farmers' rents of 7.4 per cent. and that this has an effect in increasing farmers' costs and thus tends to increase the cost of living, why he will not submit farmers' rents for consideration by the National Board for Prices and Incomes.

Mr. John Mackie

Because the Agricultural Holdings Acts already provide arbitration machinery where landlords and tenants cannot agree on individual changes in rent; and because it would be neither possible nor useful for the Board to consider farm rents without also considering the economics of the whole farming industry and indeed of nonagricultural land values. I do not consider there are sufficient grounds to justify attempting so large and complex an inquiry.