Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that where tenants share the payment of rent, their individual payment histories will be taken into account by (1) credit reference agencies, and (2) credit service providers.

The Government believes it is right that a history of paying rent should be recognised in credit and affordability assessments carried out by credit reference agencies and credit service providers.

That’s why, at Autumn Budget 2017, we announced the Rent Recognition Challenge: a £2million competition seeking technology solutions to enable tenants to record and share their rental data.

The credit reference agency Experian recently announced that rental payments will now be reflected in their credit score reports, and has partnered with some of the Challenge’s participants, Credit Ladder and Canopy.