Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason his Department calculates the maximum fair rent for regulated tenancies using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

Regulated tenancies under the Rent Act 1977 are entitled to a ‘fair rent’ which is determined and registered by rent officers. The Rent Act (Maximum Fair Rent) Order 1999 limits increases in registered fair rents to the change in the Retail Price Index plus a fixed percentage uplift.

The government has no plans to review or amend the inflationary index or to change the basis for calculating maximum fair rents from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Prices Index.