Accreditation body safeagent has predicted that widespread evictions won’t happen once the ban ends on 23 August. In a survey of safeagent firms across England, 36% of firms said they didn’t believe any tenants would be evicted when the ban ends, while a further 57% said it would be less than 10%.

When asked what the reason was that those tenants would face eviction, agents said it was not down to arrears built up during the pandemic, but instead planned proceedings or non-payment of rent before March 2020.

Isobel Thomson, chief executive at safeagent, said: “These results show that the rhetoric emanating from lobbying groups around arrears and the likely number of tenants to be evicted as a result of their inability to pay rent, does not give the full picture. We know times are hard but we also know how much good work is being done by agents and landlords to maintain tenancies. Agents are not seeing high numbers of tenants in arrears and they are reporting landlords being sympathetic and willing to work with their tenants to find solutions.”