Shadow Housing and Communities Minister Mark Isherwood MS has criticised the Housing Minister for dismissing the concerns of “decent and sometimes desperate” residential landlords by refusing to introduce an exemption to the eviction ban for those with over six months of arrears, as is the case in England.
Evictions were banned at the start of the first lockdown in March.
Yesterday in the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood supported the Public Health (Protection from Eviction) (Wales) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 as “a Public Health response to transmission of the Covid-19 virus, extending the suspension on eviction enforcement to the 31st March”, but stressed the need for an exemption to the ban for those with over six months of arrears, as in England, to ensure residential landlords are better protected.
Taking part in proceedings virtually from North Wales, he said:
“However, unlike in England, there is no exemption to the ban for those with over six months of arrears.
“The Minister may cite the Tenant Saver Loan Scheme as a reason for not having that in Wales.
“However, as the Minister confirmed to me in her answer to my Written Questions about the Tenant Saver Loan Scheme on 22nd December, take up of these loans is low, and although payment is made directly to the Landlord on behalf of the applicant by a Credit Union, only 22 loans had been approved and some 800 expressions of interest received from tenants, representing less than half of one percent of Private Rented Sector Households in Wales.
“Further, these loans are targeted at private sector tenants who weren’t in significant rent arrears before March and aren’t on benefits.
“The majority of residential landlords in Wales have only one or two properties, and they rely on the income generated from these to fund both overheads and their own living expenses.
“I therefore urge the Minister to respond to calls for the Welsh Government to massively expand knowledge and take-up of the loan – and maybe even expand eligibility – or to admit that because there is little perceived need to pay off arrears in Wales, the exemption in England should be allowed here too because those in arrears who are taking advantage of a loan are small in number, and there is currently therefore little to help landlords and tenants sustain a tenancy, as opposed to imposition on the landlord of a tenancy that is significantly in arrears.
“I therefore also call on the Minister to invest in much more effective consultation with the sector to come up with a better scheme, including, for example, the exemption in England.”
The Minister totally dismissed Mr Isherwood’s calls in her response, stating: “I'm afraid I simply don't agree that allowing an exemption for cumulative rent arrears would be appropriate or proportionate at this time, as that's very likely to lead to a larger number of people being evicted into homelessness, and so we think that we've done the right thing here in the limited exemptions that we have put in, and I commend the motion to the Senedd.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood said:
“The Minister’s incautious response was as ill-judged as it was irresponsible. My comments came directly from decent and sometimes desperate residential Landlords across Wales, and her reply suggests a continuing closed-mindedness when it comes to this sector verging on recklessness.”