Government urged to extend eviction ban throughout third lockdown as deadline looms

The government is being urged to extend an eviction ban due to expire on 11 January to stop renters being removed from their homes during a third national lockdown.

Generation Rent and housing lawyers are urging ministers to stop eviction proceedings going through the courts and suspend bailiff action for the duration of lockdown to keep tenants safe as the public health crisis deepens.

The campaign group recommends a number of measure to protect private tenants who have been disproportionately impacted financially by the pandemic.

Hundreds of thousands of tenants are thought to be in arrears and charities fear a backlog of evictions could come to a head next week as the ban ends.

Generation Rent reiterated its call to prevent landlords from issuing mandatory eviction notices where the tenant is not at fault or where they are in more than two months' of rent arrears. In these circumstances courts currently have no discretion meaning they must approve eviction proceedings.  

The group also urged ministers to raise local housing allowance, scrap the benefit cap and provide grants to help tenants pay the rent.  

Since the last lockdown, unemployment has risen to 4.9 per cent, but research has shown that benefits fail to cover the rent in every region in England.

Generation Rent research in November estimated that 538,000 households in Great Britain are unable to cover their rent with their benefits.  

While 42 per cent of private renters now rely on Local Housing Allowance, it is only set to cover the cheapest 30 per cent of private rented homes.

The Housing Law Practitioners Association backed an immediate extension to the eviction ban.

“The government must now act to extend the moratorium on evictions beyond 11 January, put the “everyone in” policy on a formal footing so that councils are obliged to accommodate everyone at risk of rough sleeping including those with no recourse to public funds, and put in place meaningful protections for renters,’ the association said.

Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent, said: "The rapid escalation of covid-19 cases due to the spread of the new variant means we must do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus.  

"During the first lockdown, renters who had received an eviction notice still felt pressure to move out, which is why we're calling the government to do all it can to prevent unnecessary house moves by suspending evictions. 

"The government must also stop landlords from issuing eviction notices in the first place.  

"Since the first lockdown there are many more people who are out of work so relying on Universal Credit rather than furlough. That means a lot of people are facing a shortfall on their rent - we need the government to prevent them from falling into rent debt."