Freeze Commercial Rent till trading restarts after lockdown · petition

What the petition asks

It's a big ask from landlords to keep the tenants liable for their full rent when they are closed for trading. Government ought to enforce freeze on the rent till trading restart. Commercial rents are in thousands every month and it's not possible for a business to generate that without trading.

To come out of the current situation, businesses must be able to restart trading at the end of lockdown and bring back their employees to employment. At the moment the staff are furloughed so they can come back to a job, however the business might have to cease completely if it fails to pay rent. Generally, commercial rents are held by investment companies that don't care about small businesses wellbeing.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Suspending payments for rent is a matter for individual landlords, and not the UK Government or Parliament. The Government has introduced emergency legislation to suspend new evictions from social or private rented accommodation while this national emergency is taking place: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/complete-ban-on-evictions-and-additional-protection-for-renters

The Government's advice to tenants states that tenants should continue to pay rent and abide by all other terms of their tenancy agreement to the best of their ability, and that tenants who are unable to do so should speak to their landlord at the earliest opportunity: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/876500/Consolidated_Landlord_and_Tenant_Guidance_COVID_and_the_PRS_v4.2.pdf

We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:

Encourage lenders, landlords and utilities to freeze payments during lockdown: Encourage lenders, landlords and utilities to freeze payments during lockdown

Implement Universal Basic Income to give home and food security during the coronavirus outbreak: Implement Universal Basic Income to give home & food security through Covid-19

We have published a number of petitions calling on the Government to provide financial support to individuals and businesses during the pandemic, which you might like to sign. You can view all open petitions relating to coronavirus here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=open&topic=covid-19

You can find out about what Government support is available for people as a result of coronavirus (under the section on employment and financial support) here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

25 Apr 2020	Petition opened for signatures
29 May 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee