Lord Best (CB)

My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords for their support for my set of amendments, including the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, who made the point that the First-tier Tribunal already faces a backlog and there is the danger that it will get a lot worse in the future. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, for his inside knowledge that, in the business world, indexation is relatively common as a way of stabilising increases over time. Of course, the market rate may go down when it resumes, in comparison with what has happened on an index basis, so rents could go down at the end of a four-year period. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Grender, who made the point that renters will still be exposed, after this Bill is passed, to much greater insecurity and uncertainty from potential rent increases. We are seeing increases at the moment of 14%, which is miles above inflation. This is very unsettling for tenants and the stability of an index system would be infinitely preferable. I support the noble Baroness’s own Amendment 114, which proposes a government commission on affordable housing. This would match the voluntary sector-supported commission, which I had the honour of chairing a couple of years ago, ready for review. That was supported by the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, who pointed out how housing costs increase almost exponentially the number of children and families in poverty—it is housing costs “wot done it” very often, by creating poverty. The noble Lord, Lord Fuller, is yet to be convinced of the merits of my case. It is true that there could be complications, but any other system is more complicated and difficult than the one that we propose. I am sad to say that the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, compared this to rent control—“Oh, not again!” We thought we were at pains to point out that something that hits the market level on a regular basis cannot be called rent control—it is not control of the marketplace—but I thank him for his contribution. I am afraid I have not convinced the Minister, despite her great generosity in having meetings outside the Chamber. I am grateful to her for listening attentively to the case I make. It has not been sufficient to win her over. I can only say that there is now, on the record, an alternative to the Bill’s formula, and if that proves as unsatisfactory as I suspect it will be, maybe this amendment’s time will come. In the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.