Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department will take to support businesses after the rent arrears forfeiture moratorium ends on 30 June 2021.

The Government recognises that many businesses have struggled to pay rent to landlords during the pandemic and have built up debt. That is why we introduced measures to protect commercial tenants from eviction and against aggressive debt recovery.

We welcome negotiations between commercial landlords and their tenants to resolve any outstanding debts. But to provide more certainty, I announced on 16 June that the government will legislate to ringfence rent debt accrued during the pandemic by business effected by Covid-19 closures and set out a process of binding arbitration to be undertaken between landlords and tenants where agreement cannot be reached.