‘We must protect renters from losing homes,’ says Jon Trickett MP

“Many workers who accessed the coronavirus job retention scheme saw 20 per cent of their monthly wage disappear overnight.

By June 30 this year, 13,600 people had been furloughed in my constituency of Hemsworth.

Many furloughed workers will no doubt have faced the joint pressures of losing a fifth of their wage, yet still having their full rent to pay.

While the government did impose a ban that prevented landlords evicting tenants who could not pay rent due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this ban ends on August 23.

I can only imagine what this impending deadline must mean for so many renters who continue to face financial hardship through no fault of their own.

Research carried out by the housing charity Shelter has found that one in six parents who rent privately – equivalent to 458,000 people, are worried that their family could become homeless as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Around 227,000 private renters have fallen into arrears since the start of lockdown in March.

Many of these worried parents and tenants finding themselves in arrears will be people who live within our area.

Nearly one in three households in the Wakefield District is in rented accommodation.

Many of these 49,000 households will still be struggling to pay their rent now just as they were back in March.

Yes, many people are now back at work.

However, this does not account for the fact that for months they have lived off only 80 per cent of their usual wage.

Many tenants will not be going back to work.

Some will still be shielding and some will have been laid off.

Some will not be able to return to work because their workplace has been deemed unsafe to reopen by the government.

We will all be hoping that Wakefield does not have lockdown restrictions reimposed like the people of Bradford, Kirklees and Aberdeen have seen in recent times.

However, if we are unfortunate enough to face a local lockdown in the future across our district, then no longer having a furlough scheme in place or protections in place for renters will cause chaos.

Covid-19 won’t have gone away by the end of August, 2020.

Nor should protections for renters who have been financially impacted by this virus.

It is the duty of the government and the cause of our welfare state to step in and protect the most vulnerable at this time.

By October there could be millions of people across the UK hit by a double whammy of unemployment and eviction, including people within our area.

This must not be allowed to happen.

The government has to act now to make sure people do not lose their jobs and their homes.

We must continue to protect renters during this time.”