Select committee: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Conclusion 18

Sixth Report - Protecting the homeless and the private rented sector: MHCLG’s response to Covid-19 Published 31 Mar 2021 Paragraph 65 Addressed to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Government is in danger of breaking its pledge that no one should lose their home as a result of the pandemic. We have seen no satisfactory evidence for why the Government changed the definition of substantial rent arrears to permit tenants who have built up arrears only during the pandemic to be evicted. It is also worrying that this significant change was not debated in the House until two weeks after the Regulations came into force.

From: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Sixth Report - Protecting the homeless and the private rented sector: MHCLG’s response to Covid-19 (HC 1329), paragraph 65, 31 March 2021

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 25 May 2021 (deadline 31 May 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The document published on 24 May 2021 is the government response to the Committee's report on COVID-19, homelessness and the private rented sector, but the text available here does not set out the government's position on the report's recommendations.

  • The response is to the Committee's sixth report of Session 2019 to 2021, following its inquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on homelessness and the private rented sector.
  • The page describes the Committee's inquiry as considering support for rough sleepers, the wider homeless population, renters and landlords, and as making recommendations about future support.
  • The full response (Ref: CP 439, 16 pages) is available as HTML and PDF. Its content on agreement, disagreement or specific commitments is not included in the text provided, so none is summarised here.

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