Coronavirus: Private renters already losing homes over Covid-19, government warned

Storm of criticism after three-month ‘holiday’ unveiled for mortgage payers – but nothing for many millions of tenants

Rob Merrick
Deputy Political Editor
Wednesday 18 March 2020 10:25 GMT
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Business secretary Alok Sharma is warned that renters face eviction because of coronavirus

Private renters are already losing their homes because of coronavirus, the government has been warned, as they were forced to wait for promised help.

Ministers are facing growing criticism after unveiling a three-month ‘holiday’ on mortgage payments for victims who are homeowners – but nothing for the many millions of tenants.

Help will come forward “very shortly”, the business secretary Alok Sharma said, but declined to say if it would match the scale of assistance for mortgage-payers.

Anneliese Dodds, a Labour Treasury spokeswoman, demanded rapid action, warning people could not be expected to turn to Universal Credit because it did not automatically include rental costs.

“There really is a critical question around people who are renting,” she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

“Our social security system is an outlier because it doesn't take into account significantly people's rental costs.”

In the Commons on Tuesday evening, the chancellor Rishi Sunak was deluged with criticism, with the SNP’s Alison Thewlis calling for a guarantee that buy-to-rent landlords pass on the help they will receive.

“If the chancellor looks at Twitter, he will see that people around the country are losing their tenancies and do not know whether they can get a new one,” she warned.

And Labour’s Karen Buck said: “A quarter of all Londoners rent privately and 13 million people across the country rent privately, with a third having no savings whatsoever.”

She demanded “money on the table to help people on low incomes and in insecure employment to pay their rent, so that this crisis does not mean that they also get into debt and risk losing their homes”.

Chi Onwurah, another Labour MP, told Mr Sunak: “The chancellor does not seem to grasp the scale of the fear, the uncertainty and the desperation in the country now.

“Will he guarantee to me now that every renter will have the means to pay their rent?”

It appeared that ministers are scrambling for how to respond, because – with no central lists of renters, or existing scheme to fall back on – delivering help is more complicated.

Some critics pointed out that mortgage-payers tend to be Conservative voters, while renters lean to Labour.

Warned about looming evictions, Mr Sharma admitted: “There are millions of renters across the country and some of them will be facing this anxiety.”

He pledged that Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, would come forward with measures “very shortly”, but gave no details.

“I completely understand why those who are renting will want to have some form of protection as well,” he told Sky News.

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