FAIR RENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 26, 31 July 1939, Page 8

FAIR RENTS

(To the Editor.) Sir—Under the above heading in your issue of the 27th I notice Parliament has been petitioned by 2070 business and property owners praying that business premises, hotels, boardinghouses, etc., may not be subject to further legislation or restrictions, and adds, inter alia, "that the only way to determine what was a fair rental for business premises was to ascertain what in the ordinary course of business, a business man, firm, or company was prepared to pay for them." Phraseology such as this is all very well and appears, on the face of it, a fair thing, and members of Parliament may be misled in what is undoubtedly a scan" I dal—to wit, the profits now being made by owners of flats and boarding and■' lodging-houses. Two thousand business people may certainly have signed that petition but twenty thousand would gladly sign a counter-petition praying for a Fair Rents Act to put a curb on j this incessant raising of rents for fiats I and rooms. A short while ago I had! no choice but to share, a room with two others for which we paid 30s each It used to be 27s 6d. Again it was [raised. We were all advised, as from the following Saturday week, no 5 o'clock meal would be served, and the board would be "reduced " 2s 6d! Now, where could we get seven meals for 2s 6d? We are all scared of this perpetual raising of rents and some of us are wondering just where we are going to finish. I might add. that the rent charged by the owner for the house is about £3 10s per week and the landlady sublets for about £12 per week.— I am, etc., CIVIL SERVANT.