I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The object of the Bill is to extend for a further year the operation of the Rent Restrictions Acts which control the rents of most houses built before 1941. Deputies will recall that in 1950 the Conroy Commission was set up to investigate the working of the Rent Restrictions Act of 1946 and to consider the question of extending rent control to furnished lettings. The commission was also asked to examine Part V of the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931, which deals with the position arising on the expiry of building leases and certain subleases and prescribes the terms on which reversionary leases are to be granted. Two reports have been furnished by the Conroy Commission, one dealing with rent control and the other with reversionary leases. The Government have completed examination of the report on reversionary leases and a Bill to give effect to the recommendations in that report is at present before the House.
The report on rent control dealt with all aspects of the rent control problem and recommended that the existing Rent Acts be repealed and reenacted, with the many amendments and extensions suggested by the commission, in one comprehensive statute. The commission proposed that the existing rent controls should be continued, with some increases to landlords who are liable for repairs, and that control be extended to dwellings built since 1941 or to be built hereafter. It also proposed an extension of control to furnished lettings.
The Government has been giving careful consideration to this problem in the light of these recommendations and having regard to developments since the report was compiled, for example, the improved supply of houses and, more recently, the worsened international outlook. The problem is a many-sided one to which there is no easy solution, and it will be some time yet before the Government can announce their legislative proposals. Meanwhile, the Government consider that the Acts should be continued, as they stand, for a further period though this will not prevent them from introducing their comprehensive proposals, if available before then, or from making any urgent amendments to the law that may prove to be necessary during the period for which the Acts are being extended.
