Landlord association calls for £200m fund to help tenants in arrears

News11.06.2112.30 PM by Peter Apps

The chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association has called on the government to consider providing up to £200m to help people avoid being evicted for falling into rent arrears.

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The chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association has called on the government to consider providing up to £200m to help people avoid being evicted for falling into rent arrears #UKhousing

Speaking in a one-off session of the Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday, Ben Beadle said that up to 82% of people who are in rent arrears had not fallen into arrears before, and that money provided by the government had pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to the committee, he said: “Research shows 82% of renters are in arrears who were not in arrears before the pandemic. Many of these [people] are ineligible for housing allowance or discretionary payments.

“There is nothing really there [in funding terms] for people who haven’t been in arrears before but need a short, sharp injection of funds to help them sustain their tenancy, which is in the interests of everyone frankly.”

He added: “If you have debt and arrears you are blocked from moving to another home, so you’re stuck, and that puts the problem squarely between the landlord and tenant, and landlords in 75% of cases, where they have been asked, have made gestures to tenants, have written down rent and ended tenancies.

“But there is only so far they can go, so we need additional funding which will allow tenancies to end or to allow people to downsize to something more affordable.”

The government announced a complete ban on tenant evictions in March 2020 as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban was extended on a number of occasions but lapsed at the end of May.

This week’s evidence session was called by the Work and Pensions Committee to look into how to support renters as well as wider issues around housing supply.

In a joint letter to housing secretary Robert Jenrick dated 1 June, committee chairs Stephen Timms and Clive Betts noted their concerns about the end of the evictions ban, stating that up to 9% of private renters in England had built up rent arrears since last March.

They called on the minister to provide details of the “rationale for lifting the evictions ban” and “any steps the government plans to take to provide transitional financial support for those impacted by the ending of the ban”.

Paul Sylvester, head of housing options at Bristol City Council, noted the issues with the council being able to provide discretionary payments for tenants to help with their arrears, saying that funding for the city is up to a third lower this year than last.

He said: “We need to give more financial support to these households despite the financial cost of the pandemic. I know the discretionary housing payment [DHP] pot for the country is £140m.

“The amount of DHP award we received in Bristol this year is 30% lower than last year, and this is a time when the eviction ban has now been lifted, the furlough scheme ends and the UC uplift will end.”