Mr. Paul Joyce:

We are very concerned. It should be said that the eviction ban only applied to so-called "no-fault eviction" cases. It did not apply to rent arrears. One of the big problems that we have, and it may well worsen as the effect of the cost-of-living crisis is felt in a wider sense, is inability to pay the rent in the first place because of income problems, credit difficulties and so on and so forth.

On the question of having a debt cancelling-debt advice service, credit is at the heart of the economy. Whether we like it or not, it is part of the bedrock of western European economies. If people do not borrow, it has a massive effect on economic growth and, therefore, there will always be a need for debt cancelling and money advice approach, which needs to be properly funded. If we are going to rely upon the extension of consumer credit to citizens to lead to the creation of jobs, then when things go wrong - which they do and people get into difficulty for all sorts of reasons, as MABS will tell you better than anyone else - then a comprehensive assistance service has to be put in place. Our view would be that it needs to go further than money advice and needs to have other elements to support it, such as research, test case strategy, law reform and so on. It is the other part of the equation. This problem will not go away. It comes in cycles, and here we are again. We think - if we had proper data, at least - it looks like we are at least about to go into some kind of a mini-credit bubble and series of debt problems. We need to be prepared for that. That involves having the services but also the information. We need to know.