16th
Jun 2021
Generation Rent enters the fray again as it has just issued a ‘frothing’ statement blasting the government’s decision in extending the eviction ban for businesses.
Earlier this week Steve Barclay the First Secretary to the Treasury, announced that the eviction ban for commercial landlords will be extended until March 2022. announced that commercial landlords will be unable to evict their tenants until March 2022. The government is also planning to fast-track emergency legislation making it mandatory for commercial landlords and business tenants in dispute over Covid related arrears to settle the issue by using a legally binding mediation scheme.
The director of Generation Rent Baroness Alicia Kennedy, responded to the government’s action and said: “The difference in the government’s treatment of businesses and private renters who have been hit by the pandemic could not be starker.
“If your business has fallen behind on rent by more than four months, that debt is ring-fenced, your landlord is encouraged to ‘share the financial impact’ and you are protected from eviction until March next year.
“If, however, you rent your home and are behind by four months, your landlord has been able to seek a possession order since September last year, and as of this month you get just four weeks’ notice before you’re taken to court.
“At the G7, Boris Johnson warned against entrenching inequalities during the recovery, yet at every turn the government has taken decisions that hurt renters, from freezing Local Housing Allowance while rents continue rising, to inflating house prices with the stamp duty holiday.
“Now a business’s pandemic debts are treated as exceptional, yet the same protection is not extended to people’s homes. To help renters bounce back from the pandemic the government must clear their arrears with a Covid Rent Debt Fund.”
A tax and advisory consultancy claims that commercial landlords are having to take on Covid 19 debt which no other industry sector has as being expected to ‘ride’ two years debt.
Heather Powell, a partner at the firm says: “It is appalling that the government continues to treat the opportunist businesses who are generating profits to ignore their landlords and refuse to pay the rent due”
She adds: “The government’s announcement means that occupiers of commercial premises – offices, factories, restaurants, cafes and leisure venues cannot be evicted for not paying their rent until after March 25 2022.
“The government is asking tenants to pay rent due as soon as restrictions are removed in their sector, if they are not already paying but this pious hope has no teeth.”
“The government needs to remember that landlords provide the infrastructure from which UK PLC trades, and from whom investment is required to help UK PLC achieve Carbon Zero by 2050.
“A more nuanced approach, that protects the interests of the landlords and tenants – an approach that genuinely ‘strikes the right balance’ between protecting landlords and supporting businesses most in need - is required if all businesses are going to come out of the pandemic ready to meet the challenges of the next 10 years”.
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