Pressure is building on the UK government to ensure England follows the example of both Scotland and Wales and creates a hardship loan scheme for poorer tenants.

Yesterday afternoon the Scottish Government announced that it was to follow suit with the Cardiff devolved administration and introduce an interest-free hardship loan scheme for tenants to pay off their Coronavirus-related arrears.

“We welcome today’s announcement which follows similar steps taken in Wales and we call on the UK Government to introduce similar help for tenants in England. The best way to prevent repossessions is to tackle the root cause by ensuring tenants are able to pay their rent” says Chris Norris of the National Residential Landlords Association.

“Although landlords have been doing all they can to support tenants struggling to pay their rent because of the pandemic, it is not sustainable to expect rent arrears to build indefinitely with no hope of paying them off.

“Once again the UK government finds itself trailing behind the rest of the UK. It is time to deliver a similar scheme to support tenants and landlords in England.”