HC Deb 17 November 1987 vol 122 cc500-1W
Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the amendments to the succession rules for existing private tenants which he proposes to make.

Mr. Waldegrave

[holding answer 16 November 1987]: The proposed amendments are as follows: When an existing tenant with a regulated tenancy dies, a surviving spouse who was living with the tenant at the time of his or her death would be able to succeed to a regulated tenancy. Where there is no qualifying spouse, a member of the tenant's family who had been living with the tenant for five years before his or her death would be able to succeed to a new-style assured tenancy at a market rent. A second succession would be possible at the death of the first successor for a member of the original tenant's family who had lived with the first successor for five years before his or her death.

The rights of any tenant who has already succeeded to a regulated tenancy would be unaffected.