personal finance

Tenants missing out on cheaper credit deals | Letter


For too long, opportunity has been divided among those who can get a mortgage and those who cannot. At present, the rent payments of Britain’s 14.8 million tenants are not taken into account by lenders in the same way as (often substantially lower) mortgage payments.

This unfairness increases the cost of borrowing for renters – excluding them from accessing the best deals – and forces many on the lowest incomes towards unaffordable, high-cost credit and a “poverty premium” debt trap that can cost a household £490 extra every year. It also creates a barrier for tenants seeking fairer access to more affordable credit – whether it’s for a mobile phone, a loan, white goods, insurance, utilities or a mortgage.

Updating the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules to ensure that rent and council tax payments are taken into account by credit service providers – where the data is shared – is the straightforward but powerful aim of the all-party endorsed creditworthiness assessment bill.

We ask the prime minister to use next week’s autumn budget to announce that the government is willing to support and give time for the bill and correct this economic injustice. Let’s give credit where it’s due. We call on Theresa May to back the bill and make rent count.

Justine Greening MP (Con), Simon Clarke MP (Con), Vince Cable MP (Lib Dem), John McDonnell MP (Lab), Caroline Lucas MP (Green), Peter Bottomley MP (Con), Alison Thewliss MP (SNP), Liz Saville Roberts MP (Plaid Cymru), Jonathan Reynolds MP (Lab), Sammy Wilson MP (DUP), John Bird (Sponsor of the bill, House of Lords)

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