Commentary on Sections Schedule 7: Minor and consequential amendments: paragraph 81 Section 92: Local housing authority houses: rents
246.Subsection (1) of this section limits the effect of section 24(3) of the Housing Act 1985 so that it applies only in relation to Wales (instead of in relation to both England and Wales). Section 24(3) requires authorities, when setting their rents, to have regard to the principle that rents of houses of any class or description should bear broadly the same proportion to private sector rents as the rents of houses of any other class or description. In certain circumstances, the requirements of section 24(3) might have made it difficult for authorities to comply in the longer term with the Government’s rent restructuring policy in England.
247.Subsection (2) of the section allows the National Assembly for Wales to make an order at some time in the future repealing section 24(3) as, after the amendment made by subsection (1) of the section, section 24(3) only applies in relation to Wales. Section 123(1) would allow the Assembly to include in such an order the consequential repeal of section 24(4) of the Housing Act 1985.