What does the King’s speech offer those in problem debt?

By Sophie Morris, Public Affairs Advisor

Last week, King Charles III set out the new Government’s legislative agenda in the King’s Speech, unveiling over 40 new bills covering a wide range of policy areas, ranging from renationalising the railways to reforming planning laws. We look at the three bills which will most impact those struggling with problem debt and reflect on what we want to see next from the new Government.

Renters Rights’ Bill

The new Renters Right’s Bill follows Labour’s manifesto commitment to overhaul the regulation of the private rented sector and was one of the most highly anticipated bills in the King’s Speech. The new Bill promises to enshrine the rights of 11 million private tenants in England and Wales through strengthening tenants’ protections, including the touted abolishment of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions — which we’ve long called for to be scrapped.

It’s pleasing to see new legislation from the Government aimed at levelling the playing field for renters and landlords, and the Bill provides ample opportunity for us to advocate for greater protections to help those struggling with problem debt. We are looking forward to working with the Government to ensure the Bill best supports private renters in financial difficulty, including continuing our calls for a Tenancy Support Duty to help struggling renters sustain their tenancies wherever possible.

Employment Rights Bill

As expected, the Government revealed its plans to introduce legislation to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights within the first 100 days of Government, as part of its ‘New Deal for Working People’ to help make work more secure.

We welcome the enhanced employment rights detailed in the new Bill, which will help provide much-needed greater security to workers and ensure that it pays to work. It was particularly pleasing to see the strengthening of SSP by removing the lower earnings limit, which we are aware impacts a proportion of our clients.

The Government also committed to providing an increased living wage at a time where we know people are struggling to keep up with escalating costs following a cost-of-living crisis, despite being in full-time work. Earlier this year, we released our ‘In Work. But Still in Debt’ report which shows four in ten of our clients are in full time employment. One in five of these have a negative budget — meaning that their day-to day expenditure exceeds their monthly income even after full debt and budgeting advice.

It’s encouraging to see the Government recognise that the current living wage is not enough to keep up with the cost of essentials. We are looking forward to working with relevant ministers to ensure that we can help prevent the occurrence of negative budgets and boost the financial resilience of households with low-to-middle incomes who have suffered successive economic shocks.

Great British Energy Bill

One of the most highly talked-about bills, the Great British Energy Bill promises clean, renewable power through a new publicly owned energy production company, which the Government hopes will bring the cost of energy down for UK households. The Bill comes as the Government made a commitment to help address the cost-of-living crisis, with tackling high energy bills a priority.

Whilst this Bill is a positive step considering its potential long-term effects as renewable power should help to reduce household bills, in the short to medium term it is unlikely that energy bills will drop by a pronounced amount. Therefore, we will continue advocating for the development, roll out and take up of social tariffs for domestic energy, alongside water and broadband tariffs, to help end fuel, water and data poverty, as called for in our manifesto.