PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Business Premises: Coronavirus (14 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has to introduce legislative proposals to further protect commercial tenants unable to trade throughout the covid-19 lockdown.

Asked by:
Sir Alan Campbell (Labour)

The Government recognises that Covid-19 is having a significant impact on businesses. The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for business in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The Chancellor announced on 5 January that closed businesses would be eligible for a further one-off payment of up to £9,000. This is the Closed Business Lockdown Payment. An additional £500 million in discretionary funding for local authorities is also being made available. This is in addition to £1.1 billion in discretionary funding that has also been allocated to local authorities to support businesses.

Government has introduced a range of legislative measures to protect commercial tenants.

Section 82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 provides for a moratorium on forfeitures of commercial leases due to the non-payment of rent accrued during the pandemic. This means that landlords of commercial properties will not be able to evict tenants for not paying rent accrued since March 2020.

The Government has also extended the restrictions on the service of statutory demands and winding-up petitions implemented through the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 in line with the moratorium’s new expiry date. This prevents creditors petitioning for a company to be wound up on the grounds it cannot pay its debts, unless the court permits and is satisfied that the inability to pay debts is not as a result of Covid-19.

The Government has also extended the restrictions on landlords’ abilities to recover rental arrears through the seizure of tenants’ goods through the use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery.

The Government has published a voluntary Code of Practice to encourage constructive dialogue between tenants and landlords; and is clear that those tenants who can pay in full should do so, those who cannot should pay what they can, and those landlords who can grant concessions should do so. We will publish further guidance to support negotiations between landlords and tenants in due course.

Answered by:
Luke Hall (Conservative)
20 January 2021