Meeting of the Parliament 04 October 2022
I am aware that concerns have been expressed that some tenants—a minority, it should be suggested—might be tempted to stop paying rent even if they can afford it. I move on to the additional ground for eviction that we are exempting from the moratorium. We have taken the view that, both in the social and the private rented sectors, eviction may still take place in cases in which there are substantial rent arrears. I will lay that out in a little more detail, because I know that some members have concerns about it. For the private rented sector, that means a total value of six or more months’ worth of rent arrears. For the social rented sector, it means rent arrears of £2,250 or more, which is around six months’ worth of average rent in the social rented sector.
The decision on that has not been an easy one, but, having considered it at length, I am firmly of the view that the provision will act as a safeguard for landlords and tenants. It will allay the concern that a minority of tenants might stop paying rent even when they can afford it. On-going substantial rent arrears can mean that a landlord can find it increasingly difficult to offer a property for rent, especially where no rent has been paid for a prolonged period.
In addition, for a tenant facing unsustainable rent arrears, prolonging the situation will only increase their debt and financial insecurity and it can trap them with debt that they will never be able to service. The protection that a tenant in such circumstances needs is different. They need direct support, and we are making support available through discretionary housing payments and the tenant grant fund, which was introduced in recent years and has since been made more flexible, to allow it to be used for more recently accrued arrears that are not related to Covid.