Public Health (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (England) (No. 2) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

Peter Kyle Excerpts

Wednesday 21st April 2021 General Committees

[Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford, and it is also nice to see the Minister opposite me. That does not happen very often these days following his dizzy elevation, so it is good to see him today.

Nobody in this Room would want to be evicted from their home. It is not just the worry of where to spend the night that would keep most of us up; it is the fear of what comes next. Where do I sleep the night after? How do I arrange another rental if my landlord refuses to give me a reference? What do I tell my family? How do I help my kids? Some of us might be able to arrange a safe place to stay at short notice through a quick text to a friend or a phone call to nearby family, but not everybody has that luxury. For many people evicted from their homes, what looms is not a few nights on a sofa, but a genuine fear of homelessness and the prospect of having to sleep rough with no end in sight.

Homelessness is a political failing for which the Government should be held to account. That fact makes the Government’s consistent failure to identify a long-term solution to evictions during the pandemic all the more galling. Why is it that we are brought back here every couple of weeks to extend a ban that fails to tackle the underlying challenges of the housing sector? Why do the Government prefer continually to extend the short-term ban, rather than offer a long-term solution running to the end of the coronavirus restrictions that would offer renters and landlords certainty? Why do the Government continue to allow evictions for arrears built up since the start of the pandemic, despite the dire economic situation?

The Government’s disastrous handling of the economy has made the situation even worse. What is more, the failure to support households that are building up arrears has real consequences for those in more vulnerable financial situations. According to research from the National Housing Federation, 60% of households claiming universal credit are in rent arrears, with an average debt of nearly £610. The Government promised an end to no-fault evictions in their 2019 manifesto. Where is it? As with their victims Bill, the Government seem to prefer promises to real action.

Rather than offering sticking-plaster extensions to a ban already too limited in scope, Labour has ambitious plans for renters and homeowners everywhere. We would strengthen and extend the ban on evictions and repossessions until restrictions are over, extend mortgage holidays, raise local housing allowance to cover median market rents, reform housing law to end automatic evictions through the courts, reduce the waiting period to receive support for mortgage interest payments, retain the £20 universal credit uplift beyond six months, end the five-week wait, and suspend the benefits cap. Labour is on the side of renters and homeowners. Through their policy and practice, it is clear that the Tories are not. After this extension is ratified, it is up to the Government to transform the housing sector once and for all. The next time we are called back to a Committee like this I hope that such a transformative offer is on the table.