THE “scandalous” lifting of the evictions ban during the pandemic should be reversed, Labour said today.

Labour piled pressure on the government in the Commons to prevent about 55,000 households from losing their homes over the coming months.

Shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire slammed the move to end the eviction moratorium in England and Wales ahead of a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

She said: “The government must act now to prevent a wave of evictions just as Covid is rising this winter, and honour their promise to landlords and renters.”

Housing Minister Christopher Pincher said the government wants to “strike a balance” between the needs of tenants and landlords after a six-month delay to landlords starting court eviction proceedings, in place since March, came to an end on Monday.

Courts will be prioritising cases with serious rent arrears of more than a year, fraud, domestic violence and anti-social behaviour, due to a backlog that has built up during the moratorium.

Mr Pincher said the judiciary will increase notice periods from two to six months “in all but the most serious cases.”

He claimed that the government has “honoured its promise to landlords and to renters.”

Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle argued that there was an imbalance between rights of renters and those of homeowners and landlords.

He said: “Landlords and home-owners have been able to have mortgage referrals, they can’t be repossessed without a court looking at the circumstances and without the mortgage company discussing payment options.”

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who secured the urgent question, called for an extension to the eviction moratorium “so that the underlying problems can be solved.”

He said: “The ban on possession proceedings had given many private renters protection against the economic impact of coronavirus, at least the roof over their heads couldn’t be taken away. 

“That protection ended on Sunday and now 55,000 households are in immediate danger of losing their homes.

“These are the 55,000 served eviction notices between March and August. Their landlords were not required to give six months’ notice and so courts could be processing their eviction orders as I speak.”

The call for the ban to be put back into place has also been supported by 16 public health bodies and charities.