A string of debt advice charities want Housing Secretary Michael Gove to go well beyond merely banning Section 21 in a bid to help tenants further.

The charities - StepChange, Money Advice Trust, Citizens Advice, and Christians Against Poverty, alongside the Law Centres Network - have written to Gove urging him to prioritise the Renters Reform Bill in this parliamentary session and calling for stronger measures in the Bill for private renters experiencing financial difficulty.

New polling by YouGov for StepChange claims private renters are twice as likely to be in ‘problem debt’ than the average person, while more than half (53%) of private renters say they’ve found it difficult to keep up with bills and credit commitments in the past few months.

The charities claim record average private rents are driving ‘low financial resilience’ among private tenants, especially those with vulnerabilities like ill-health, but they are unable to be placed in the social housing sector. 

The charities are calling for a new Tenancy Support Programme, which would mirror the Pre-Action Protocol that exists for social tenants in rent arrears. This would introduce ‘reasonable steps private landlords must take to support tenants in financial difficulty to sustain tenancies wherever possible, including referring them to benefits advice and seeking to agree an affordable repayment plan for arrears.’