That is not in the Bill, and I am not allowed to discuss it. In any case, we discussed it on Report.

I turn to other criticisms which have been made. If the proposal in the Bill is fair and reasonable—and they are beginning to say that it is—the Opposition nevertheless claim that there is only one kind of person who can fix a fair rent. Not a judge—certainly not he, they say, is inexpert. They say that the only class of person to do this is a trained valuer.

I will say something bluntly to them. If we had been as innocent as that, if we had arranged for rent tribunals manned solely by professionally-trained valuers, we could have said goodbye to even an appearance of justice being done to the tenant. I said this on Report and I repeat it: of course we need the advice of the valuer, but the suggestion that only the valuer, he and he alone, is able to decide on rents is erroneous. It would also be disastrous to anybody who wanted to try to take rents out of politics and to get a sense of fair play between landlord and tenant. That is why we chose rent officers who were not professional valuers and rent committees on which the valuer would certainly play his rôle, but it would not be a dominant rôle. In fact he will play his rôle alongside the lawyer and alongside the layman.