The passing on to the tenant of rates increases and limited increases in rent attributable to improvements or structural alterations carried out by the landlord to a dwelling had been permitted since the inception of the Rent Acts.
Part l of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 extended Rent Act protection to tenants under long leases at low rents, and to the sub-tenants of tenants under such leases, by providing a procedure that converted those tenants into statutory tenants on the expiry of their tenancies.