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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will extend the same protections that are in place for tenants of commercial properties to artists facing eviction from rented workspaces and studios as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Through Section 82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020, the Government has introduced temporary new measures to protect tenants renting commercial property from aggressive forms of rent recovery: we have legislated to enact a?moratorium on commercial forfeitures due to non-payment of rent, due to end on 30 June; statutory demands and winding up petitions issued to commercial tenants will be temporarily voided; and changes have been made to the use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery.

The protection from eviction applies to businesses from any sector which have:

(a) a tenancy to which Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies, or

(b) a tenancy to which that Part of that Act would apply if any relevant occupier were the tenant.

Assuming the nature of their lease or contract is in line with the above, any tenant should be protected under this legislation.