Catalogue description Records of the Business Rents Directorate

The Business Rent Directorate was created in 1973 as a result of a Cabinet decision that in the Counter Inflation Bill then in Parliament the power to control business rents should not continue to be exercised by the Lord Chancellor's Department, but by the Department of the Environment and the Scottish and Welsh Offices. Following this decision the Lord Chancellor's Office's existing powers on the control of business rents were also handed over to these three departments.

The directorate had responsibility for the government's counter-inflation legislation, the administration of Parts II and III of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, and the security of tenure for business tenants.

Sir Dennis Pilcher was appointed Business Rents Adviser to assist the department with its new responsibilities. He continued in this post until 1975.

In June 1974 under a departmental reorganisation the directorate was abolished and its functions became the responsibility of Commercial Property Division 1 within the Urban Affairs and Commercial Property Directorate. In late 1978 this was abolished and its functions transferred to the newly created Land Economy Directorate.