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Government to give renters ‘added protection’ after COVID-19 eviction ban is lifted, Jenrick tells MPs
Tenants with rent arrears will not be immediately forced from their homes after the coronavirus eviction ban is lifted, with the government working on new protocols to give renters “added protection” during this period, the housing secretary has told MPs.
Robert Jenrick revealed today that the government is working closely with the Lord Chief Justice to ensure a “pre-action protocol” is put in place when the eviction ban is lifted.
This would put a duty on the landlord to “act in good faith” and investigate other solutions to overcome rent arrear issues before eviction proceedings begin.
Speaking at a Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee meeting looking into the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, Mr Jenrick told MPs: “This [pre-action protocol] will apply at the end of the moratorium on evictions, whether that’s in late June or later in the year.
“It will enable tenants to have an added degree of protection, because instead of embarking upon the eviction proceedings immediately, there will be a duty upon their landlords to reach out to them, discuss their situation, and try to find an affordable repayment plan.
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“This will enable tenants to remain in their homes and to recover the rent they haven’t been able to pay because of their circumstances.”
In March the government announced an outright ban on evictions until 25 June as part of a raft of measures to protect people facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. This sparked fears that there would be a flood of evictions once the ban was lifted in June as landlords looked to launch possession cases against those with high rent arrears.
Under current housing law, if tenants owe two or more months’ rent at the time legal proceedings start, they can be evicted by landlords on mandatory grounds – meaning the judge must automatically make an outright possession order, if the arrears can be proved.
However, Mr Jenrick said that the new protocol would ensure landlords are not able to “begin the eviction proceedings on day one” and would ensure other avenues were explored first.
He added that similar pre-action protocols had been applied during the financial crisis in 2008 and worked “quite well” in helping many people stay in their homes.
When asked by MPs whether the current eviction ban could be extended past the current June deadline, Mr Jenrick said the government would review it when the date approached.
“There’s still some time to come before then, we will review it carefully and it will very much depend on the medical advice we are receiving and the lockdown measures,” he said.
Mr Jenrick also set out further detail on the government’s strategy for putting rough sleepers in emergency accommodation to help them shield from the virus.
Over the weekend the government announced the formation of a new taskforce to get rough sleepers into permanent accommodation after the pandemic.
More than 5,400 rough sleepers have been offered emergency accommodation in the past six weeks.
Speaking to the committee, Mr Jenrick urged “caution” over any assumptions that “every single one” of these people will be helped into Housing First-style accommodation once the crisis has abated because of a lack of suitable move-on homes.
He said: “I don’t want to over-promise on this because I think this is actually an extremely difficult situation and the limited capacity available to us will make it challenging to get everybody into the sort of accommodation we would wish.
“The task ahead… is how can we get as many people as possible into that type of accommodation and as few as possible returning to the streets.”
The taskforce will identify how much move-on accommodation is available and how the capacity can be increased “at pace”, he added, as well as assessing other “interim” solutions such as hostels and night shelters.
Also during in the session, the housing secretary revealed that around 70% of cladding remediation work was halted because of the crisis.
However, Mr Jenrick said that following a “call to arms” issued last month by him, mayors and local leaders pledging that building safety work continues during the pandemic, “a number of those sites” have resumed remediation with more expected to follow suit.
