The government’s extension to the ban on evictions in England and Wales for a further two months to 23 August has been met with cautious optimism, with downsides being particularly focussed on arrears.

Citizens Advice chief executive Dame Gillian Guy calls the pause on repossession, “a sticking plaster, not a cure.”

She says: “People who have fallen behind on rent arrears and those who have been furloughed or lost their jobs will need the security of proper reform to the rules governing evictions.”

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate uses a similar phrase, calling the announcement only a “stop gap”.

She explains: “The ban hasn’t stopped people who’ve lost their jobs during this pandemic from racking up rent arrears. Even if they have a plan to pay them back, these debts will throw struggling renters straight back into the firing line of an automatic eviction as soon as the ban does lift.”

Neate warns that without law changes to protect renters, “the country will face a tidal wave of homelessness after the summer. Sooner or later, the government has to stop kicking the can down the road.”

Thomson Snell & Passmore partner Mark Steggles says that, “the can that is being kicked down the road is getting heavier. Significant rent arrears are accruing that some tenants have no realistic means of paying back and landlords are becoming less understanding as time marches on.

“Without reform to the eviction process that balances the interests of landlords and tenants during this period of extension, the courts are going to be overloaded with possession and debt claims in the Autumn meaning that tenants will still be evicted – it is just a question of when and how much debt is racked up in the interim.”

Generation Rent director Dan Wilson Craw adds his voice to this chorus. He says: “The government has averted a homelessness crisis – for now.

“But with holes in the housing safety net and much of the economy still in lockdown, millions of renters will get further behind on rent. Not all of them can rely on their landlord’s goodwill and so need further help with rent, and assurance that they can stay in their homes beyond the summer,” he says.

He too adds that the government must come up with a long-term solution.

National Residential Landlords Association chief executive Ben Beadle voices another concern. He says that five months without landlords receiving any rent could see investors leaving the market.

Beadle adds that not being able to take action against tenants also means, “more misery for tenants and neighbours suffering at the hands of anti-social tenants and will also cause exceptional hardship for a number of landlords, including many who depend on their rental income to live, for which there is no assistance.

“We have every sympathy with tenants who face genuine difficulties because of a loss of income due to the coronavirus crisis and as our survey out tomorrow shows, nearly all landlords are working with tenants who are struggling to keep them in their home,” he says.

He adds: “It is important that the government sets out its plans for the market at the end of this one-time extension. A failure to do so will cause serious damage to the private rented sector as a whole.

“It will ultimately be tenants who suffer as they will find it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing if landlords do not have the confidence that they will get their properties back swiftly in legitimate circumstances.”