Generation Rent is calling for a furlough-type scheme aimed at helping tenants.

The group says that following news of the four week lockdown in England, it wants the government to adopt a ‘Coronavirus Home Retention Scheme’ that would:

- suspend evictions for rent arrears, to ensure that renters who have lost income due to the pandemic do not also lose their home;

- ensure the benefits system covers housing costs, through restoring Local Housing Allowance to the median rent, removing benefit caps, expanding eligibility, and scrapping no recourse to public funds;

- make £750m available to clear the debts for renters and allow landlords to claim for discretionary payments to cover up to 80 per cent of lost income.

The group - led by Baroness Alicia Kennedy - is calling on the government to raise Local Housing Allowance to cover the median rent so that families do not get into debt and to set up a fund to clear the debts of renters who have already got into serious arrears by compensating landlords up to 80 per cent of the rent owed. 

It is also renewing its long-standing call for the abolition of Section 21 evictions “to prevent unnecessary hardship now that courts have reopened.”

After the renewed lockdown ends, the Job Retention Scheme is being replaced by the Job Support Scheme to pay employees working a fifth or more of normal hours at least 74 per cent of their wage, and employees in businesses forced to close 67 per cent of their wages.

Generation Rent claims job sectors including nightlife, entertainment, events and sport face continued restrictions on operations so the end of the 80 per cent guaranteed furlough - now scheduled for December 2 - means many employees face redundancy or reduced income.