On 9 November 2021 the Government introduced the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill (the "Bill").  

The aim of the Bill is to establish a binding arbitration scheme for dealing with commercial rent arrears that have arisen in industries which have faced Government-mandated closures (as a result of Covid-19).

The Bill represents a radical intervention in the world of commercial property and the Government hopes that it will break the current deadlock between some landlords and tenants over arrears which have built up during the pandemic. We summarised the key provisions of the Bill in an earlier post.

Now the Government is seeking evidence/views on the Bill, as it passes through Parliament. Please see here for information on how to submit evidence.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee (the "Committee") is expected to be on 7 December 2021. The Committee is scheduled to report by 16 December 2021 (but could report before this deadline). Once the Committee has reported on the Bill, the window for submitting evidence will close. Therefore, if you would like your views to be taken into account, we recommend that any submission is made before 7 December 2021, if possible.