§ Mrs. Thatcherasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations about the freeze on business rents have been received from the financial institutions and institutional investors, including pension funds; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CroslandThe National Association of Pension Funds and the property unit trusts have asked if they can send a deputation to discuss the control of commercial rents. A meeting will be arranged.
The Government intend to continue the current standstill until the end of May 1975. They also intend to initiate a new standstill, broadly to freeze existing business rents not subject to the current standstill at the levels payable when the necessary order comes into effect; subject only to detailed exceptions as in the current standstill. It is proposed that the order should come into effect on 21st June.
267WAfter the end of May 1975 there will be a transition, on a first-in-first-out basis, in which rents which are below the market level of 5th November 1972, when the current standstill began, will be allowed to rise to that level. The transitional period and the new standstill will end when the powers of control in the Counter-Inflation Act 1973 expire in March 1976.