Cash registers play landlords' tune as retail sales back rent rises

'I feel sorry for small and medium-sized enterprises, who may just be struggling back into profitability when they are hit with huge rent rises. Shouldn't the government protect businesses and their employees who are having their throats cut by greedy landlords?'

Letter to the editor

Name and address supplied

October 6

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE. The next time that a knife-wielding landlord walks into a shop, lines the tenant and his employees up against a wall and then slits their throats, let us have him charged with murder immediately. I am surprised that Name and Address Supplied did not alert the police when he or she last saw it happen. We certainly cannot have this sort of thing go on.

I am far from certain, however, that we need official intervention when landlords commit the much less heinous offence of raising rents for their premises. In fact, I think we may be better off just now if we let natural market forces take these rents up.

Let us start by putting matters in perspective. The first chart compares the government's index of rents for retail premises to the government's index of retail sales value. It should be obvious that the two go hand in hand. Shop landlords have never been able to raise rents more than the market will bear.