A SURGE in homelessness can only be stopped by the government cancelling private-sector rent arrears which have built up during the pandemic, ministers were warned yesterday. 

Campaigners and politicians demanded the debt relief in reaction to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s extension on Saturday of a ban on bailiff-enforced evictions in England to the end of March.

Previous bans allowed evictions for people who had nine months of rent arrears, but excluded arrears built up by people who had lost their jobs since March 2020.

But following lobbying by landlord groups Tory ministers changed the rules during the January lockdown so that bailiffs can evict anyone who has been unable to pay rent for six months.

Mr Jenrick said over the weekend that the ban will stay in place for all but the most serious cases for another six weeks. He said the revised approach is a “balance between protecting tenants and enabling landlords to exercise their right to justice.”

He has now broken his promise that no-one would be made homeless as a result of economic damage inflicted by the government’s coronavirus response. 

MPs, charities and campaigners are warning that many thousands of households are at risk of being made homeless due to accrued rent arrears during the three lockdowns.

Shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire said the evictions ban extension is “too little too late” as it is “not really a ban anyway.”

She criticised the government for not rectifying the “underlying problems of paying rent in this crisis” and for “failing to keep a promise that ‘no-one should lose their home because of coronavirus’.”

At least 800,000 renters have built up arrears in England and Wales since the pandemic started in March last year, according to research by the National Residential Landlords Association.

The group has called on the government to help pay renters’ Covid-related arrears, saying eviction bans do nothing to address debt.

Shelter said its research shows almost 445,000 private renting adults in England have fallen behind on rent or been served with some kind of eviction notice in the last month alone. 

The charity called on the government to open a “way out” of debt for renters, such as by issuing emergency grants.

Chief executive Polly Neate said: “Renters are still are being served with eviction notices every day, and our helpline is flooded with calls from those desperately worried about paying their rent.”

Renters’ union Acorn also called for a “rent waiver,” adding: “The government has once again kicked the can down the road with no real help for tenants.”

Generation Rent said courts are still issuing no-fault eviction orders. It called for a suspension of Section 21 — the first step a landlord has to follow to make an eviction — as well as “action on rent debt.”

The London Renters Union wrote to Mr Jenrick accusing him of enacting a “fake” evictions ban. Organiser Claire Weldon said: “Many people in this situation have possession hearings this month and, thanks to your rule change, they could be made homeless in a matter of weeks.”

Joseph Rowntree Foundation director Helen Barnard said there needs to be “a plan” in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget to deal with the rent arrears.

She added: “The homelessness surge is just postponed. To prevent it would mean help with arrears and the building of homes for social rent.”