The Chancellor is making landlords the scapegoats for the COVID rent debt crisis as he turns his back on the support the sector needs, according to a new report published by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), which outlines the toll that COVID-19 has taken on the private rented sector.

The report warns that without financial support to tackle COVID-related rent arrears, the Chancellor is forcing landlords into a corner. They either have to accept continuing to receive no income or resort to repossessing their property with all the consequences this course of action entails for tenants.

The NRLA is warning that the goodwill of landlords in the face of mounting rent debts cannot continue without support from the Treasury. The report highlights the scale of the crisis, as over 800,000 people living in the private rented sector in England and Wales have rent arrears, with most built since lockdown measures began and which still need to be paid off. Of this group, the vast majority (82%), were not in arrears prior to the start of the pandemic.

Moreover, the majority of landlords (60%) feel their lettings business will be negatively affected as a result of the pandemic with 34% saying that their rental income has been impacted by the events of the past year. Despite more than 9 in 10 landlords being individuals, and almost half renting out just one or two properties, among those who had offered at least one tenant a rent-free period or allowed rent to be deferred, 58% had absorbed the losses from their savings.

To help resolve this crisis, the government should introduce new measures to bring housing benefit support back into line with market rents, says the NRLA. Government data shows that across the UK, in February 2021, 55% of private rented households in receipt of Universal Credit, which included housing cost support, had a gap between that and the rents they paid. The average shortfall was £100 a month. Despite this, the Chancellor froze local housing allowance rates in cash terms from April this year, a decision the Institute for Fiscal Studies branded “arbitrary and unfair.”