§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if it is his intention to bring forward proposals in this Parliament to seek to encourage potential resident landlords to let.
§ Sir George YoungResident landlord lettings are not subject to fair rents or to security of tenure under the Rent Act. We introduced measures in the Housing Act 1980 to assist resident landlords and we shall consider further action in the context of the legislation which we hope to introduce, probably in the next Parliament, to stimulate the supply of private rented accommodation.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his latest estimate of the average gross return yielded by registered fair rents on the vacant possession value of privately rented properties.
§ Sir George YoungInformation about the relationship between fair rents and capital values is collected via the "Beacons" exercise, which provides estimates of fair rents for specified dwelling types by area, together with 57W estimates of capital values assuming vacant possession. The results of the Beacons exercise on 1 January 1985 are published in a rent officer statistical note, RO(S)72, a copy of which is available in the Library. The mean gross return on capital values in England and Wales for the specified dwelling types varied between 3 per cent. and 4 per cent.
Data for 1 July 1985 will be published shortly.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is his estimate of the current breakdown of the total numbers of dwellings occupied in the private rented sector including fully protected tenancies, holiday lets, lets with board, lets with attendance, lets by absent owner-occupiers and lets on licence;
(2) what is his estimate of the current numbers of dwellings occupied in the private rented sector; and what proportion of total dwellings this represents.
§ Sir George YoungLatest estimates of the current stock of privately rented dwellings, and the proportion this represents of the total dwelling stock, are published in Housing and Construction Statistics 1974–1984, table 9.4, a copy of which is available in the Library. This shows that the private rented sector in England is now estimated to include about 1.65 million dwellings, 8.9 per cent. of the total stock. Information enabling this estimate to be broken down according to type of lettings is not collected.
§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he can give any information about the change in the supply of privately rented accommodation as a result of the House of Lords' decision in Street v. Mountford.
§ Sir George YoungMy Department has no information on this.