Labour is now urging the government to quickly legislate new measures to protect renters post June, just after the Bank of England warned the nation that Covid-19 will trash the economy causing the worst crash in over 300 years.

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Top of the Opposition’s ‘wish list’ is for the government extending the three month ban on evictions in England and Wales to six months plus, and tenants must be allowed to pay back their rental arrears because of the crisis over a two year period.

The shadow secretary of state for housing, Thangam Debbonaire, said: “Current protections for people renting their homes are woefully inadequate. Unless the government acts now, many thousands of tenants will be at risk of losing their homes.”

The party will be presenting its five point plan for emergency legislation to be passed by the government imminently, which are:

1. Extend the temporary ban on evictions for six months or however long is needed to implement the legal changes below.

2. Give residential tenants the same protections as commercial tenants, by protecting them from being made bankrupt by their landlords for non-payment of rent.

3. Bring forward the government’s proposal to scrap Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions and outlaw evictions on the grounds of rent arrears if the arrears were accrued because of hardship caused by the coronavirus crisis.

4. Once evictions are prevented, grant renters at least two years to pay back any arrears accrued during this period.

5. Speed up and improve the provision of Universal Credit, as Labour recently called for, and consider a temporary increase to the Local Housing Allowance to help prevent risk of homelessness.

Starmer received an open letter from Labour members calling for him to “cancel the rent”.

The members’ letter accuses the party of “failing renters”, and says its “solutions simply are not good enough”, and “it’s time for the people’s bailout. Cancel the rent.”

Momentum is the ‘force’ behind the open letter as it sent an email to members saying: “Over a third of private renters live in poverty and two thirds have no savings. Even before coronavirus, almost half working renters were one pay cheque away from losing their home.

“Now millions of renters are at high risk of losing their jobs. Yet Labour’s new policy would see renters shoulder the cost of the crisis.

“It would require renters to pay back all rent missed during the crisis over a two year period – the equivalent of a 12% rent rise amidst the worst recession for three hundred years.

“Renters deserve better than this. Sign this open letter calling on Labour to back a policy of rent cancellation, not deferral.”