Most private landlords who cut rent to help tenants during the pandemic absorbed these losses from their savings, says the National Residential Landlords Association.

It says that 61% of landlords who offered at least one tenant a rent-free or a deferred rent period in the second quarter of the year absorbed these losses from their own pocket, according to a poll conducted by the landlords’ body.

The association highlights a September survey by YouGov, which says that 61% of landlords rent out just one property, and 34% are retired with rental income representing all or part of their pension.

The NRLA says: “Reliance on landlord savings is not sustainable in supporting tenants facing rent problems.”

Around 7% of tenants in England, almost 800,000, were behind with their rent, according to data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities last month. This is more than double the number who said they were in arrears in 2019/20, before lockdown measures started.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “These figures show the extent to which landlords have worked to sustain tenancies as a result of the pandemic, many at the expense of their retirement savings. But this cannot continue indefinitely.

“After months of calling on the government to help tenants who through no fault of theirs got behind with their rent, we have welcomed the funding now made available to help those affected to pay off Covid rent debts.

“It is now vital that councils ensure tenants who need it can access the funding swiftly. Without this, landlords will be left between a rock and a hard place either expected to sustain rent arrears they cannot afford or to repossess their properties, neither of which we want to see.”

The NRLA commissioned data group BVA/BDRC for a wide-ranging survey who conducted 2494 online interviews in three separate waves between 5 December 2020 and 5 July 2021. Data around rent cuts and landlord savings were taken from 644 responses from those surveyed over this period.