While the coronavirus pandemic has affected many areas of people's lives, often not in a positive way, one development that has been embraced by many of us in the UK is the increased use of online shopping and services options. This has escalated the rate at which mainly online retailers are growing and also, the rate at which some bricks and mortar retailers are losing business. Amid this development and the continued lack of residential homes in the right areas across the UK, the government has launched an unexpected consultation on the conversion of retail units into residential homes in England.

As signs emerged in February and March 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic was going to cause much financial hardship, the government put a number of rules in place to protect the population

Things change all the time and no country or industry is immune to that fact. One sector which has seen its fair share of change already in just a few years, is the UK's Private Rental Sector (PRS) and now, it's facing yet another challenge - providing lettings accommodation for a broader demographic including older and disabled tenants.

Tenant Safety Must Come First

As the country is once again living in lockdown, the government’s latest guidance to Letting Agents is to put the safety of their tenants first.

As the UK government adopts a cautious approach to ending a lockdown that's been put in place to protect the population and the NHS from the spread of coronavirus, a recent report shows that among households, tenants have fared worse than homeowners.