HC Deb 21 April 1988 vol 131 cc560-1W
Dr. Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing the average level(a) of local authority rents and (b) of fair rents registered for unfurnished lettings in England in each of the years from 1979 to 1988, indicating the percentage increase in each on an annual and cumulative basis, showing also the movement of the retail prices index over that same period.

Mr. Ridley

The figures on local authority rents, the average rents registered by rent officers and the movements in the retail prices index up to 1987 are as follows. Corresponding figures are not available for 1988.

Average weekly rents1 England
Year LA (unrebated) April Fair rents Unfurnished tenancies2 2nd half year

£

 Retail Prices Index United Kingdom April
per cent. increase per cent increase
£ over year since 1979 over year since 1979
1984 14.66 5 129 16.80 5 63
1985 15.54 6 142 18.05 7 75
1986 16.36 5 155 19.95 3 80
1987 17.20 5 168 21.19 4 87
1 service charges, if any, are included in fair rents, but not in local authority rents.
2 registered rents for private regulated tenancies only.
3 England and Wales.

The mix of properties for which rents are registered varies from year to year for a number of reasons, for example, extension of decontrol in 1981 and the reduction from three to two years in the minim um period for re-registration which led to re-registrations in 1983 of rents previously registered in 1980 and 1981. Therefore, comparisons of average for consecutive years do not properly reflect rent movements. Better estimates of rent movements are derived from previous and new registered rents for tenancies where there has been no material change in terms or in the physical condition. For properties with rents fixed in the second halves of 1979, 1982, 1984 and 1986, the estimated increases are :

per cent. increase in period annualised per cent. increase
1979–82 47 14
1982–84 18 9
1984–86 17 8

The estimated annualised increase for properties with rents fixed in the second half of 1987 was 9 per cent.