Borrowers and mortgage-holders will receive “enhanced protection” when new legislation is brought to Parliament, it was announced today.

And Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs, said landlords and tenants would see laws governing their rights clarified while further protecting boarders and people renting rooms, adding that the the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown had created “these very sensitive conditions”.

He added: “We are at the early stages of the economic impacts that the pandemic has brought upon our country and we have already received a number of complaints around the actions being taken by landlords and tenants in these very sensitive conditions.”

Mr Roban, expanding on last Friday’s Throne Speech, also said Government will also seek to boost first time home owners by allowing them to use part of their pensions as a down payment on a home.

He added: “I am fully aware that we are at the early stages of the economic impact the pandemic has brought on our country.”

Other Throne Speech proposals for Home Affairs cover bringing in submarine cables: Mr Roban confirmed that a “fee regimen will be completed in the not too distant future”.

The island hopes to position itself as a hub for communications cables in the North Atlantic.

Mr Roban said a Green Energy Environmental Justice Fund was in the works to promote renewable energy – and that the island would be advanced as a “regulatory sandbox” to test new green energy proposals.