The Poor Man's Rent Thirteen years after the War which
caused Parliament to control the rent of houses up to £110 a year in London, the new Government proposes to repeal the Act except as regards the smallest properties. It was thought, when this special disadvantage was attached to house owner- ship, that new building and better trade would soon restore normal conditions in housing. Events have proved otherwise. The Committee appointed by the Labour Government reported last session in favour of partial decontrol. Sir Hilton Young indicated last week that the Housing Bill promised for next session would embody the Committee's proposals in the main. He stressed the fact that there was still a serious shortage of the smallest houses, to be let to working-class tenants. Where such houses had been freed from control under later Acts, "acute and unnecessary local grievances" were often caused. Therefore the Government intended to "perpetuate control" of these houses, and to con- centrate their efforts on building more very small houses with the help of subsidies. It may be expected that the freeing of houses rented at, say, 5:40 or 150 a year and upwards, will cause a good deal of heart-burning. On the other hand, many house-owners have suffered much, and tenants have often made illegitimate profit by sub. letting rooms or floors at exorbitant rents, because the Acts did not provide sufficiently against such abuses: But the poor folk in the very smallest houses still need protection.
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