A host of businesses and charities have urged the chancellor to put together a rescue package for half a million private renters are in arrears due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
The Nationwide Building Society, Rowntree Foundation and the National Residential Landlords Association and among the bodies who have signed a joint statement calling for action when Rishi Sunak presents his 3 March Budget.
The statement calls for “a targeted financial package to help renters pay off arrears built since lockdown measures started in March last year. This will help to sustain existing tenancies and keep renters in their homes – whilst also ensuring rental debt does not risk them finding homes in the future”.
Secondly, they criticise plans to cut back on benefits used by renters.
The statement says: “The government increased Universal Credit and Housing Benefit because it recognised that the system was not doing enough to support people in the first place, yet it has chosen to freeze Housing Benefit rates again from April and is considering cutting Universal Credit at the same time. It cannot be right that these measures could be pulled away from renters during continued economic uncertainty.”
It adds: “The longer the Chancellor waits to take action, the more rent debts will increase, and the greater the risk of homelessness will become. Without additional support, more renters will lose their homes in the coming months, with the risk of an increase in homelessness.
“We urge the Chancellor to act now to avoid renters being scarred by debts they have no hope of clearing and a wave of people having to leave their homes in the weeks and months to come.”
Around 840,000 private renters have landed in arrears since the start of lockdown restrictions, a survey for the National Residential Landlords Association revealed in December.
The average arrears were between £251 and £500, though 18 per cent, or approximately 150,000, of those with rental debts owed more than £1,000.
The survey found that younger people were most likely to have been affected with 14 per cent of renters aged 18 to 24 and 10 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 having built arrears since last March.
The statement was signed by The Big Issue Ride Out Recession Alliance, Crisis, Citizens Advice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Money Advice Trust, The Mortgage Works, National Residential Landlords Association, Nationwide Building Society, Propertymark, StepChange Debt Charity and Shelter.
