THE TORIES have revealed their answer to the UK’s housing crisis: move non-British nationals out of social housing. It is the latest in a series of announcements from Kemi Badenoch’s Tory Party that are racist and, frankly, cuckoo.
The policy is a quick-fix play of the race card, designed to scapegoat migrants and Black and Asians people. It’s certainly no answer to the housing crisis, not least because it reveals that the Tories do not know anything about housing – or are trying to pretend they don’t, or are relying on no one exposing their ignorance.
Using the housing crisis to stoke racism (and support for the far right) began in 2024, when the Tories were considering requiring foreign nationals to live in the UK for ten years before they could apply for social housing. A couple of months ago Nigel Farage, Leader of Reform UK, said a Reform Government would give foreign nationals three months’ notice to leave social housing and find themselves somewhere else to live. The new Tory policy is different. The Tories would give foreign nationals six months to quite social housing – not three. Otherwise, it’s the same.
The Tories claim this policy would vacate around 200,000 homes – which could then be rented by UK citizens. The BBC claims that government figures show that 89% of new social lettings in 2024/25 were UK nationals. That year, 2.3% of new lettings went to refugees – mainly from Afghanistan and Ukraine, both of which have been the subject of large-scale government resettlement schemes.
What’s wrong with that, then? •Social housing is in short supply – so let’s build more, then. New social housing is a very safe bet, and investors are almost guaranteed to make their money back. Switching UK and non-UK nationals between social housing and the private rented sector would not create any more homes to tackle homelessness and hidden homelessness.
•Councils do not “give” social housing to foreign nationals in preference to UK nationals. Refugees are housed separately, by the Home Office, in hotels or shared houses in the private sector. Councils all have fair and transparent lettings policies, based on housing need and waiting time – and usually with a qualification period of around three years before you can apply.
•Councils are not the only body in charge of social housing. They own about 40% of social housing, with around 60% being owned by housing associations (often called RSLs or RPs) which are technically in the private sector, not the public sector.
•A foreign national may have lived in the UK for many years. A foreign national who lives in social housing is more likely than most to have lived in the UK for many years, as social housing is hard to come by and needs a long wait.
•The far-right is plugging the line that most “illegal immigrants” are single men, so this is easily conflated with the notion that non-UK nationals resident in the UK are single men. Single people do not qualify for social housing (unless they are disabled or pregnant). Foreign nationals are therefore more likely to have families than to be single.
•A household containing a non-UK national living in social housing is likely to have been living there for several years. Moving them out of social housing is not going to be a case of moving a single person. They are likely to have families – so children may have to change school; they may have to change their GP; they may have to move away from other social support services.
•Social and non-social (private) housing do not sit next to each other, allowing housing to be swapped for private housing easily, without moving area. The cost of private housing is high, and in urban areas it is likely to be well above the Local Housing Allowance. In Tower Hamlets, a three-bedroomed social housing flat may have a rent of around £800 – and just down the road, a three bedroomed privately owned flat could be rented out for £2,400. Even more likely, that private flat would be split up into four bedrooms, each being rented out for £1,500, with use of a communal bathroom, toilet and kitchen included. Presumably the Tories don’t mind private profiteering like that.
What are the others saying? Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Housing Secretary, said, “No amount of headline-chasing, or following Reform to the extremes, can hide the damage the Tories did to our housing system.”
Sarah Elliott, Chief Executive of housing charity Shelter, pointed out that the Tories’ new plans would “brutally kick people out of their homes, including thousands of families and pensioners who have lived in them for decades.” She also identified the real cause of the housing crisis, saying, “The housing emergency is caused by successive governments failure to build enough genuinely affordable social homes – not by who accesses social housing.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, accused the Conservatives of trying to copy Reform’s policy: a rare case of Reform being right about something. He added that British social housing is funded by British taxpayers. Wrong! Social housing is funded by the rents paid by those who live in it. Cross-subsidy of housing has been unlawful since 2012.
Andy Burnham said he wants to deliver “the biggest council housing building programme since the post-war period”. He had better hurry up.
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