Please advise, landlord tenant issue. Leaving early not paying last months rent, but dispute deduction of deposit

[QuintessentialShadows]

I appreciate some advice.

We are vacating our rental property a month early. The contract, assured short hold tenancy, is for a year, but there is a break clause that state that property surrendered early if we find replacement tenants. We did, but landlord dismissed this without finding out anything about them. Two further applicants that was put forward by the estate agent did not get a response from the landlord about the proposed tenancies.

As the landlords know we are vacating, they have planned major renovations work in the house, as in their view, they get rent paid in a period they otherwise would not as it cant be rented to new tenants during work, and they dont have to refund us any rent, as we are not there anyway.
They are non-communicative about this, I only know they are planning this work because I overheard the landlady telling the consultant the convenient dates to start work.

The issue is; neither landlord nor estate agent are communicating with us. They have not replied to emails outlining the breach of contract. They are not willing to check us out of the property early. They know we are flying out (arranged earlier) to see family, not returning until September.

I want to just not pay the last months rent. (we dont have money for the last months rent anyway. Our employer is folding and salaries not received for July). We had to move out early because the property would be too expensive, and we foresaw what was coming, and in addition to this, our own tenants left our property, so we have had to move back to our old house, as with neither salaries nor rental income, we would be in serious trouble. We told the landlords the reason we had to move was financial, as our own tenants had left, but did not say anything about our salaries.

So, back to the point, I want to not pay the last months rent, which is due on the 10th august. (The direct debit will bounce anyway). But when the landlord proposes to take this off the deposit, I want to dispute this, citing their breach of contract and lack of communication and inflexibility in the matter.

Can I do this?