HC Deb 15 May 1970 vol 801 cc401-3W
Mr. Leslie Huckfield

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what were the numbers of cases dealt with by the Rent Officer and Rent Assessment Committees in Nuneaton and Bedworth in the years 1968 and 1969; and if he will give details of the numbers of decisions resulting in increases or decreases.

Mr. Greenwood:

In 1968 115 fair rents were registered in Nuneaton and 291 in Bedworth; in 1969 the numbers were 34 and 35 respectively. The 1968 figures include a number of dwellings referred to the rent officer in block references.

Analyses of registrations are available only for the registration area in which these districts lie, Warwickshire, and deal only with cases in which the basis on which the fair rent rested was comparable with that on which the previous rent was fixed. There were 112 such cases in Warwickshire in 1968; in 14 the previous rent was reduced, in 11 it was confirmed and in 87 it was increased. In 1969 there were 152 such cases: 18 reductions, nine confirmations and 125 increases of the previous rent. Of these 264 "comparable cases" only five were referred to rent assessment committees; in four of these the previous rent was reduced, and in one increased.

Mr. Pavitt

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government whether he is aware that certain landlords seek to escape determination of a fair rent by rent officers, by getting tenants to agree to joint applications to rent officers for the registration of excessive rents which landlords wish to charge; and what steps he has taken in the matter.

Mr. Freeson:

Rent officers know of the risk that a landlord might pressurise a tenant into jointly applying for an excessive rent. But the possibility that joint applications might be so used as a loophole in the 1965 Rent Act was stopped from the start. A rent specified in a joint application will not be registered automatically. The rent officer must, by law, satisfy himself that the rent is a fair one within the meaning of the Rent Act before he can register it. If he considers that the rent proposed in a joint applica- tion is not fair, he will go through the normal procedures in order to determine a fair rent and will register it.