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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of people who are at risk of eviction due to unmet rent payments that are currently protected by the eviction moratorium in (a) Thames Valley region, (b) Oxfordshire and (c) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency.

The Department does not currently hold information on the value of private housing rent arrears and the associated risk of eviction in Thames Valley region, Oxfordshire and Oxford West and Abingdon constituency.

This Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support to help renters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic afford their housing costs. Notably, to help prevent people getting into financial hardship, we have increased the local housing allowance (LHA) rate to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area. The increased LHA rates will be maintained at the current levels in cash terms in 2021/22, even in areas where the 30th percentile of local rents has gone down. We are also extending the £20 per week uplift in Universal Credit for a further 6 months and providing a one-off payment of £500 to eligible Working Tax Credit claimants.

In addition, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has offered support for businesses to pay staff salaries, enabling people to continue to pay their rent and has been extended until September 2021. For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) are available. As announced at the spending round for 2020/21, there is already £180 million in DHPs for local authorities to distribute for supporting renters with housings costs in the private and social rented sectors. For 2021-22 the Government will make available £140 million in DHP funding, which takes account of the increased LHA rates.

Our package of support is preventing evictions. The English Housing Survey Household Resilience Study found that in June-July 2020 the majority of private renters, 93%, were up-to-date with rent payments. The Ministry of Justice recorded only 548 landlord repossessions between April and end December 2020 compared to 22,444 over the same period in 2019.