Business owners affected by the Coronavirus pandemic will be protected from eviction from their rented properties until the end of March 2021, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick announced this week.

Extension to protections from the threat of eviction will give landlords and tenants three months to come to an agreement on unpaid rent, he said. ‘The Government is clear that where businesses can pay any or all of their rent, they should do so’.

The restriction on landlords using Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery to recover unpaid rent will also automatically extend to the end of March. And a temporary measure introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act restricting the use of statutory demands and winding-up petitions, which was due to expire on 31 December 2020, has been extended to 31 March 2021.

The Minister also announced a review of ‘outdated commercial landlord and tenant legislation’, to address concerns that the current framework does not reflect the current economic conditions.

‘This review will consider how to enable better collaboration between commercial landlords and tenants and also how to improve the leasing process to ensure our high streets and town centres thrive as we recover from the pandemic and beyond’, he said.

The review will be launched early next year and will consider a broad range of issues including the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 Part II, different models of rent payment, and the impact of Coronavirus on the market.