Industry bodies that represent over 100,000 members from across the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors have called for the Government to take urgent steps this week to extend protection from rent enforcement activity.<\/p>\n
ukactive, UKHospitality, the British Retail Consortium and the British Independent Retailers Association say their members face evictions, winding up orders and other enforcement activity when the current protection from landlords begin to expire on 30 June.<\/p>\n
With many businesses still legally closed, with zero income, and facing the next quarterly rent payment on 24 June, the bodies have written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, calling for the Government to urgently extend the Moratorium of Forfeiture until at least October 2020.<\/p>\n
The Moratorium of Forfeiture prevents landlords from issuing legal proceedings against tenants, such as statutory demand notices, winding up orders and Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery (CRAR).<\/p>\n
The Government is working with industry to develop a new Code of Practice designed to support businesses, however, timelines mean there will be insufficient time for it to influence the expected rent demands on 24 June.<\/p>\n
A business in receipt of a winding up order would have its accounts frozen and be unable to pay staff, including those on furlough \u2013 meaning some would have to make redundancies.<\/p>\n
In the letter, the groups call on the Government to:<\/strong><\/p>\n