Scotland tenant hardship loan fund launches
Tenants in Scotland who have been financially affected by Covid-19 will now be able to apply for interest-free loans to pay off Covid-related arrears.
The £10 million Tenant Hardship Loan Fund, which opened this week, follows a similar scheme introduced in Wales in October following extensive NRLA lobbying.
The NRLA continues to campaign for hardship loans and grants for tenants and landlords in England who are financially affected by the pandemic.
The proposed scheme would see payments made directly to landlords to cover rent arrears accumulated since the start of the pandemic.
Alongside this, the NRLA is calling for a boost to discretionary housing payments, increasing the local housing allowance to cover the median rents in an area and suspending the Shared Accommodation Rate for under 35s for 12 months, so they can cover the cost of more than a room in a shared property.
Support our campaign
The NRLA has made a joint call for more direct financial support for tenants and landlords, together with Citizens Advice, Crisis, Generation Rent, Shelter and ARLA Propertymark, and the association continues to campaign on the issue at the highest level. The call has also received backing from cross-party MPs.
We are also urging landlords to share their stories and experiences about how the pandemic has affected them and their rental business.
To make your views heard, we encourage you to Write to Your MP using our online tool. Our coronavirus campaigns page includes a link to a letter which you can edit to reflect your circumstances and send to your MP, to share your story and echo our calls for support. You can also support our campaign by sharing our posts on our social media channels.
- To read more about the Tenant Hardship Loan Fund in Scotland, click here.
- Landlords who let properties in England, Wales and Scotland can have joint membership of the NRLA and the Scottish Association of Landlords. To learn more about this, click here.
