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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to extend the ban on evictions for commercial tenants who miss rent payments during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.

On 19 June, the Government announced the extension of the moratorium on commercial lease forfeitures, as well as extensions to other measures protecting tenants for a further three months. These measures will provide businesses with the certainty they need as they begin to reopen.

The announcement confirms that in order to protect tenant businesses during this period government:

• Has extended until 30 September the moratorium on forfeitures of commercial lease.
• Will temporarily limit the use of statutory demands (made after 1 March 2020) and winding up petitions (presented from Monday 27 April) until 30 September.
• Has also extended limits on use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery to 30 September, and increased the threshold of rent owed before CRAR can be used to 189 days.

Government also published a Code of Practice for the commercial property sector in collaboration with key representative bodies. The Code will reinforce and promote good practice amongst landlords and tenants as they deal with the issues caused by COVID-19.