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242
What is obvious is that there is no single root cause. The problem
is multifactorial, often arising directly from policy decisions
or merely adventitiously, from motives personal and impersonal,
from causes avoidable and unavoidable, etc., and the solution to
one aspect often aggravates another or precipitates further
problems.
Hopes after the 1939/45 war that slum clearance and new building,
both traditional and industrial, would solve most of our
housing difficulties have not been fulfilled, and rent control and
regulation has tended to reduce the number of dwellings available
for letting.
Review of de-controlled rents and an attempt to ensure that
future lettings would be on a "fair rent" basis were the real intentions
of the 1965 Rent Act. However, no reliable statistics exist
whereby these objectives can be shown to have been achieved or,
indeed, as to whether landlords and tenants are aware of and are
taking full advantage of the statutory provisions.
The fixing of "fair rents" was to be secured without consideration
of scarcity value but, in practice, this is almost impossible.
Costs of land and building are affected by scarcity and, where
private owners acquire properties for conversion and letting,
economic costs are influenced by scarcity and they cannot, with
justice, be ignored in subsequent rent evaluation.
One thing is clear. Rent regulation has not increased the supply
of houses or flats for letting. Houses tend to be sold immediately
they are vacated and this influence is now to be seen in the sale
of flats with the result that there is a reduction in the number of
properties for letting in the private sector. This redounds to the
disadvantage of the low wage earner and those too old to secure
mortgages. Moreover, by force of circumstances, many are constrained
to undertake purchase of dwellings at prices they can ill
afford. Even the application of the "fair rent" scheme often results
in a tenant paying a rent beyond his means. It would seem that,
compared with the owner/occupier and the tenants of rentcontrolled
premises or council-owned houses or flats, tenants of
private property are at an ever-increasing disadvantage.
Rent regulation has failed for a number of reasons such as a
tenant's ignorance of his rights or his fear of harassment by his
landlord. In other instances, tenants have an amicable arrangement
with the landlord which they are anxious not to disturb or
they are satisfied that their agreement with him is, in all circumstances,
a satisfactory one.
However, abolition of rent control in the present situation is not
only unwise but impracticable. Nevertheless, some efforts must