J.HE RENT RESTRICTION ACTS. [To the Editor of the SeEers:roe..]
SIR,—There is an element of humour in the brief abstracts of a Parliamentary Committee ! You appoint it, carefully
selecting its personnel, and in due time after, presumably, taking evidence, collating and sifting it, it presents its report. The Government then proceeds to examine it in the light of the clamour of a partisan Press, and obediently eliminates its most unpopular provisions. This has been the fate of the inquiry into the working of the Rent Restriction Acts. One body of men, one class of business, has been penalized now for five years after the conclusion of the War, or counting its duration, nine years in all. During this period we have been deprived of the control of our property, the right to live in our own houses, and compelled to accept about half the market value of our investment, and, in many cases, lose heavily by it. I refer to the case of those who, like myself, bought the remainder of short leaseholds, and then invested their money in converting into flats. When the War broke out I had about twenty-eight years to run, and had owned the property some eight years.
The consequence is, that for nine years I have been com- pelled to witness the wastage of my investment and the gradual effluxion of the time in which I ought to be paying back my capital. Further, I am now confronted with the prospect of another two or three years under the same condi- tions. What is this but the confiscation of capital under another name ? Do the Government, Judge Parry, and those who think with them imagine that if the Labour Party, and the crackpots who lead them, are returned to power the lesson will be lost upon them ? They will, of course, use the precedent to buttress their position. " If," they will argue, " you confiscate one form of property, why not another ? "
The utter fatuousness of the Government's attitude in the face of the terrible shortage of houses is almost incredible.
This is what they say to the landlord :-
" In the time of War you shall be penalized. You will not be allowed to raise your rents while it lasts. Everyone shall make profits, but not you. Moreover, when Peace arrives, and all restrictions are banished from every other trade, occupation or calling, your liberty will not be restored. Your vested rights shall be swept away. You shall, in a word, be compelled to suffer in bad days, and be forbidden to take advantage of good times. Now go, and, encouraged by this bright picture, set to work to BUILD HOUSES I "
Who is going to be such a boiled owl as to invest money or time in such a hopeless enterprise. Said a builder : " Build houses to let ? Not much ! Sell them, and get 'em oft your hands as soon as possible " As for the Government
subsidy, it is utterly wrong—wrong in principle, and equally wrong as a means of solving the problem for which it is
designed.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Tunbridge Wells.
Enaen H. S. Serums-M.7nm.
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