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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce an embargo on housing evictions during the current period of national restrictions; and, if so whether this will apply (1) to tenants of caravans, and (2) to tenants of caravan pitches on residential caravan sites.

To further protect against Coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission, the Government has changed the law to ensure bailiffs do not enforce evictions in England over the period of national restrictions or over the Christmas period. This means that no eviction notices are to be served until 11 January at the earliest and, given the 14-day notice period required, no evictions are expected to be enforced until 25 January 2021 at the earliest.

The only exceptions to this would be in the most serious circumstances such as: illegal occupation, false statement, anti-social behaviour, perpetrators of domestic abuse in social housing, where a property is unoccupied following the death of a tenant and extreme rent arrears equivalent to 9 months’ rent with any arrears accrued since 23 March discounted. The Government aims to provide further guidance shortly regarding the operation of these exemptions, following consultation with the judiciary.

This applies in relation to tenants on residential caravan sites as well as in relation to tenants of bricks and mortar properties.