FAIR RENTS AND RATES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22507, 15 September 1938, Page 9

FAIR RENTS AND RATES

TO TBX BOITOB OT TH* PBESS. Sir, —By a coincidence the rate notices were received practically at the same time as the news that a beneficent Government had extended the term of the operation of the Fair Rents Act. No doubt when the Government houses are all let to the better class of tenant it will be repealed Or allowed to die a natural death. The unfortunate private owners will be left with houses which they are unable to keep in good order owing to the low rents and high rates. In the meantime the rates increase, wages go up, so that every repair hosts more than it ever did before, and still the tenant is to be allowed to remain without increased rent. His wages and income (unless he is a capitalist who has invested his money on mortgage or in house property) have- increased to more than they were when the compulsory 20 per cent, cut was imposed, and then, at a time when many landlords had made even bigger concessions, the rent is arbitrarily fixed, and cannot be increased without an order of the magistrate or intervention of the Labour Department. If and when the next depression comes it will be interesting to see what reductions are made by the model landlord; even now there are whispers that things are not what they seem, —Yours, etc., NEVERMORE. September 13, 1938.