When the UK government said in February that its ban on evicting commercial tenants was to be extended until July, it made a tacit admission: It does not know how to bring to an end the yearlong policy without undue consequences. As well as announcing the three-month extension, the Ministry for Communities and Local Government issued a “call for evidence” on the “best way to withdraw or replace these measures while preserving tenant businesses and the millions of jobs that they support.” The problem of unwinding the eviction moratorium is a microcosm of the problems the government faces in how to manage the economy as it tries to emerge from the destruction wrought by Covid-19. What it does from here has huge ramifications for commercial real estate. 
“I’m of course only speculating, but I think this is really a proxy for a huge debate going on within government right now,” British Property Federation Chief Executive Melanie Leech said. “The government stepped in at a time of crisis…  Read the full story here. | 
