Public Houses: Rents

(asked on 23rd April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that pub owners who own three or less public houses with a total annual rental income of less than £100,000 are exempted from any plans to waive public house rentals during the COVID-19 pandemic; what plans they have to support such owners if their tenants are unable to pay rent during the pandemic; and what assessment they have made of whether it is compliant with the Human Rights Act 1998 to impose the suspension of rent without payment being deferred and without offering compensation.


Answered by
Lord Callanan Portrait
Lord Callanan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This question was answered on 7th May 2020

The Government recognises that this is a very challenging time for the pub sector. The majority of landlords and tenants are working well together to reach agreements on debt obligations. While landlords are urged to give their tenants the breathing space needed, tenants that can afford to pay rent, or a proportion of it, are still expected to do so. The Government recognises that commercial landlords have their own obligations to meet.

The Government is implementing temporary measures that were provided for in the Coronavirus Act 2020 to protect business tenants from forfeiture or re-entry on grounds of non-payment of rent. The Government will also introduce temporary measures to ban the use by commercial landlords of aggressive debt recovery tactics, as part of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill. These measures do not require landlords to waive rent.

The Government is providing an unprecedented package of measures to help businesses during the current COIVD-19 outbreak, including loans, employee salary support and self-employed income support, which are available to commercial landlords.

Reticulating Splines