Coronavirus eviction crisis warning from Oxford tenants

Tenants in the city have joined campaign groups calling on the government to suspend rent while they live on furlough wages or Universal Credit payments.

One campaigner warned that people were already 'choosing between food or rent’ in Oxford, a city which regularly ranks as the least affordable places to live in the country.

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The calls to give relief to renters come from two groups – the Oxford Tenants Union and ACORN Oxford, a branch of a UK-wide ‘community union’ that campaigns on social issues.

Alice Dann of ACORN said: "Oxford is one of the least affordable cities to rent in and, if rents aren’t suspended, it will be at the centre of the homelessness and eviction crisis we’ll be seeing in a few months.

Oxford Tenants Union displayed banners around the city last month calling for more support for renters. Picture: Oxford Tenants Union.

"People are already having to choose between paying for food or rent. This shouldn’t be a choice.

"That’s why ACORN is working locally to protect renters and fighting nationally for our government to suspend rents and cancel rent debt."

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A nationwide YouGov poll in April commissioned by the housing charity Shelter predicted two million renters would be unable to pay rent if they lost their jobs due to the coronavirus lockdown.

This equates to an estimated 23 per cent of renters who would be left homeless if they lost their jobs.

In March, the government told landlords to put a three-month halt to any evictions, and also made an increase to housing benefits.

The chancellor also said people who had bought a house could take a mortgage holiday during the lockdown, a measure which applied to buy-to-let landlords as well as people living in their own homes.

Last month, Oxford Tenants Union said it had testimonial from some renters in the city that evictions were still taking place illegally.

Oxford Tenants Union displayed banners around the city last month calling for more support for renters. Picture: Oxford Tenants Union.

The Labour Party has asked the government to take measures further in a five-point plan, which includes extending the ban on evictions to six months, outlawing evictions if rent arrears are caused by hardship from the coronavirus outbreak, and granting renters two years to pay back any arrears accrued.

But some Oxford Labour members think the official opposition should go further, and have penned a letter to Oxford East Labour MP Anneliese Dodds.

Signatories of the letter include Labour city councillors Mike Rowley, Richard Howlett, Lubna Arshad, Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and Nadine Bely-Summers.

The letter, signed by 113 Oxfordshire Labour members in total, warns: “Our party policy is not good enough. We are failing renters.”

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It calls on the party to change its policy and press the government to cancel any rent arrears caused by the coronavirus crisis.

In the longer term it also recommended establishing rent controls, and giving councils the power to repossess empty homes so they can be rented out.

Another ACORN member, Sea Loveridge, said there was a way to make sure renters were protected while landlords also earned a ‘basic standard of living’.

But he added: “What is not acceptable is the status quo where the costs of the crisis are borne disproportionately by renters, who are already at an economic disadvantage.

“They now face mounting debt and homelessness to protect landlords’ income streams. This is morally wrong and will also be an economic drag, slowing our future recovery.”