Rent freeze in the UK on the table
A minimum of three month suspension of rent for private tenants struggling financially during the current crisis has been proposed in the UK amongst fears that many are falling through the safety net of economic measures. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) said that at least 1.2 million people could fall into severe financial hardship due to job losses and wage cuts, and even with available credits over 5 million would only have an average of £55 a week after rent to spend on utility bills, food clothing and all other expenses. The average private tenant spends about a third of their income on renting and many already live on the poverty line with even a short period of unemployment seeing them facing, at worse, homelessness. Details of how landlords would be compensated have yet to be finalised, with many of them solely dependant on rental income for a living.
