A CAMPAIGN encouraging tenants to prioritise essential spending before paying rent was launched today as new polling showed strong public support for people refusing to pay landlords during the coronavirus lockdown.

The London Renters’ Union’s (LRU) “Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!” campaign website saw tenants pledge to withhold enough of their rent to meet other basic needs such as food.

More than 80 per cent of people agree that there are circumstances in which those who are struggling to make ends meet during the crisis should stop paying rent, a recent YouGov poll found.

On average, London’s tenants spend 60 to 70 per cent of their income on rent.

The campaign is also urging the government to “avert a crisis of rent debt and evictions” by suspending rent payments during the crisis, making the evictions ban permanent, cancelling rent debts, introducing rent controls and ending migration-status checks in the housing system. 

LRU member Zara, who was on a zero-hours contract but has had her hours cut during the lockdown, is not eligible for government support and has had to pay Home Office fees that have left her family in debt.

“Me and my husband are so worried about protecting our children, ensuring they’re never homeless, but also protecting them from the stress and fear of that happening,” she said.

“We tried to contact our landlord for a rent reduction because we can’t afford it. But he refused to talk to us and just said he is going to try to get us declared bankrupt.”

A separate campaign, backed by Open Labour and Momentum, calling on the Labour Party to adopt a  “cancel the rent” policy has been signed by thousands of members.

It accuses the party of “failing renters” and said its proposed solutions were “not good enough.”

But shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire claimed that the call was “un-Labour” and “really regressive.”