JAMES AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT 21 objective pursued by the 1967 Act from being a legitimate one "in the public interest". Similar reasoning applies to the applicants’ claim that the amendment introduced by the Conservative Government in 1974, whereby a small percentage of more valuable dwellinghouses were for the first time brought within the scope of the legislation (see paragraphs 19 in fine and 21 (b) above), "was born of political expediency alone". 49. The applicants further disputed the existence of any problem justifying legislation. According to the applicants, the long leasehold system of tenure, certainly as far as premium leases were concerned (see paragraph 12 above), did not in fact suffer from any unfairness and it could not be said that the tenant had any "moral entitlement" to ownership of the house merely by reason of occupying a house built, repaired or improved by previous tenants in accordance with the contractual terms of a lease. As stated above (at paragraph 46), the Court has jurisdiction to inquire into the factual basis of the justification pleaded by the respondent Government. That review, however, is limited to determining whether the legislature’s assessment of the relevant social and economic conditions came within the State’s margin of appreciation (ibid.). The Government conceded that the convictions on which the 1967 Act was based were by no means universally shared; and this is borne out by the 1962 White Paper (see paragraph 17 above). As the Commission observed in its report, the justice or injustice of the leasehold system and the respective "moral entitlements" of tenants and landlords are matters of judgment on which there is clearly room for legitimate conflict of opinions. The applicants’ views cannot be qualified as groundless. Nonetheless, there is sufficient evidence to justify the contrary views. In a building lease the original tenant will have built the house, in a premium lease he will have paid an initial capital sum which typically took account of the building cost, and in both kinds of lease the tenant will have been responsible for all running repairs (see paragraph 12 above). This means that the long-leasehold tenant and his predecessors will over the years have invested a considerable amount of money in the house which is their home, whereas the landlord will normally have made no contribution towards its maintenance subsequent to the granting of the original lease. The Court therefore agrees with the Commission’s conclusion : the United Kingdom Parliament’s belief in the existence of a social injustice was not such as could be characterised as manifestly unreasonable. (c) Means chosen to achieve the aim 50. This, however, does not settle the issue. Not only must a measure depriving a person of his property pursue, on the facts as well as in principle, a legitimate aim "in the public interest", but there must also be a reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and