Citizens Advice is calling on the government to provide an unspecified amount of assistance to renters during the current cost of living crisis.

As more mortgage holders seek support following successive interest rate rises, so Citizens Advice claims to be helping record numbers of private renters with what the charity calls “homelessness and with Section 21 ’no fault’ evictions.”

It concedes this trend suggests landlords may be selling their properties due to increasing costs or, it suggests, “hiking rents to unaffordable levels.”

The charity wants the Renters Reform Bill, currently in Parliament, to be accelerated “and give renters the protection and improved rights they desperately need.”

Charity chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty comments: “People who can’t cover their essential bills risk being sucked into a spiral of debt. 

“Our latest analysis is a sobering reminder that, despite cutting their spending back to the absolute minimum, too many people are simply living on empty. The government must look at ways of preventing mortgage holders and renters from falling further into the abyss.”

Her charity says that mortgage holders who’ve had detailed budgeting help as part of Citizens Advice’s debt advice process have gone from being one of the most protected groups to facing a negative budget – meaning they don’t have enough to cover their essential costs, such as housing, food and energy bills. 

In 2019 mortgage holders had a £61 surplus after covering essential bills, they now face a £147 a month shortfall, figures from the latest Citizens Advice cost of living analysis show. 

It adds that some groups – it singles out single parents, disabled people and people of colour – are experiencing bigger shortfalls than others.