Statutes And Reports Of Committees: Report of the Committee on Housing in Greater London1 Rent Act 1965

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1966.tb01113.x
Published date01 March 1966
Date01 March 1966
STATUTES AND REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
REPORT
OF
THE
COMMITTEE
ON
HOUSING
IN
GREATER LONDON
l
RENT ACT
1965
1.
Background
to the Report
1966
saw the fiftieth anniversary of the Rent Acts.a The history
has been chequered. Control of tenancies of most dwelling-houses
was imposed during the First World War but thereafter removed
from all but the smallest houses.
In
1989,
on
the outbreak
of
the
Second World War, control was again greatly extended, but dis-
mantling recommenced in the nineteen-fifties. The Housing Repairs
and Rents Act
1954
freed from
control
all new dwelling-houses
thereafter completed. At the same time tenants
of
dwelling-houses
on long lease were allowed, broadly speaking, to transfer
to
Rent
Act control when their leases expired, by the Landlord and Tenant
Act
1954,
Part
I.
The Rent Act
1957
decontrolled dwelling-houses
with a rateable value in November
1956
above
$40
in London
or
Scotland and
$80
elsewhere, gave powers for further block decontrol
by ministerial order and established creeping decontrol by excluding
subsequent new tenancies from the Acts. This insistence
on
regard-
ing statutory control
of
dwelling-houses as being fundamentally
based on emergency, and temporary in character, contrasted rather
oddly in the nineteen-fifties with the permanent systems
of
protection for tenants of agricultural holdings
or
business premises.4
In
1962
public opinion became seriously disturbed about allega-
tions of oppression of tenants by landlords in London, and the then
Government, acknowledging ignorance of the
fact^,^
appointed
on
August
24, 1968,
a Committee with Sir Milner Holland,
c.B.E.,,
Q.c.,
as Chairman,
“to survey the housing situation in Greater London
(as
defined in the Local Government Act
1968)
with particular
reference to the use, maintenance and management
of
rented
accommodation, whether privately
or
publicly owned, and to
the relations between the occupiers of rented accommodation
and private landlords.”
1
Cmnd.
2605.
2
No
attempt
is,
of
course, here made
to
summarise
the legislation which may
be found in,
e.g.,
Megarry,
The
Rent
Acts,
9th
ed.. or any other
of
the leading
works on landlord and tenant.
3
Snbject to the cushioning effect
of
the Landlord and Tenant (Temporary Pro-
-
--
visions) Act
1958.
4
Agricultural Holdings Act
1948;
Landlord and Tenant Act
1954,
Part
11.
5
White Paper on
London: Employment: Housing: Land,” Cmnd.
1952,
para.
48.
170

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT