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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the publication of the Household Resilience Study, Wave 2, what assessment he has made of the reasons that the proportion of private renters in arrears has increased during the covid-19 pandemic.

The latest published data from the English Housing Survey Household Resilience Study from November – December 2020, suggests that 9% of private renters are in arrears, compared to 3% pre pandemic. Of the 9% (353,000 households) in arrears, two thirds are in arrears of less than 2 months, indicating the Government package of economic support measures have effectively prevented a widespread build-up of rent arrears.

The full breakdown of reasons for difficulty in keeping up with rent payments is provided in Table T20 of the Household Resilience Study Wave 2: Wave 2 tables, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/household-resilience-study-wave-2.