Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that protections afforded under the Coronavirus Act (2020) to tenants in the private and social rented sectors are not removed without impact assessments being undertaken when covid-19 lockdown restrictions are lifted.

The Government has established an unprecedented package of support to protect renters throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes legislating through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a six month stay on possession proceedings in court and a range of financial support to enable renters to continue paying their living costs, including rental payments.

To further protect renters over winter, we legislated in August to increase notice periods to six months in all but the most serious circumstances. This means that most tenants served notice now would not be asked to leave until at least May 2021. These increased notice period requirements will be in place until at least 31 March 2021.

Alongside this, the Government has changed the law in England to ensure bailiffs do not enforce evictions over this period of national restrictions or the Christmas period. This means no eviction notices are to be served until 11 January 2021 at the earliest and, given the 14 day notice period required, no evictions are expected until 25 January 2021 at the earliest. The only exceptions to this are the most serious circumstances: illegal occupation, false statement, anti-social behaviour, perpetrators of domestic abuse, where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant in relation to housing association tenancies, and extreme rent arrears equivalent to 9 months’ rent with any arrears accrued since 23 March discounted.

We believe this strikes the right balance between prioritising public health, supporting the most vulnerable renters and ensuring landlords can access and exercise their right to justice.

We will continue to keep the need for emergency measures introduced by the Coronavirus Act 2020 under review, and will be informed by the latest public health situation and the effect on both tenants and landlords.