Are recent migrants prioritised for council housing?

Over the summer we saw several claims circulating about social and council housing, and in particular housing waiting lists.

Social and council housing are often used interchangeably, but it’s worth pointing out that social housing refers to housing provided by either local authorities or housing associations, while council housing refers to housing owned or built by the local council.

Labour’s plans for social housing have been criticised by opposition politicians, after the government confirmed it would not proceed with plans proposed by the Conservatives to introduce a “UK connection test”. This would have required non-British applicants (excluding Irish citizens, Commonwealth citizens with a right of abode, or EEA or Swiss citizens with equal treatment rights) to have been resident in the UK for at least ten years, or to have arrived via a “safe and legal resettlement or relocation scheme” to be eligible for social housing.

Reform UK’s Lee Anderson MP claimed the government “will also put your family at the bottom of the housing list in favour of people who have just arrived in our country”, and Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick MP claimed migrants are being “prioritised for council houses”.

This explainer looks at who can apply for social and council housing, how local authorities decide who to prioritise and how immigration status impacts applications.

Housing policy is devolved, so this article refers to the situation in England, where the UK government is responsible for housing policy.

Who can apply for social housing?

In England, local authorities set their own conditions of eligibility for social housing, so whether you can apply or not might be different depending on where in the country you live. In some places you may have to apply through a housing association rather than the council.

But broadly speaking, Citizens Advice says to apply you’ll probably need to be on a low income (or have little in savings) and have a connection to the local area (by having lived there for a number of years, or having a job or family in the area)—though not all local authorities require you to meet this latter criteria.

Immigration status also affects whether you can join the housing register. People with the following statuses can apply:

• British or Irish citizens
• EU Settlement Scheme settled status (or right to reside)
• Indefinite leave to remain
• Refugee status or humanitarian protection
• Right of abode
• Leave to remain in the UK as a ‘stateless person’.

People in the UK on visas with no recourse to public funds may not apply for social housing. This typically applies to people on temporary visit, work or study visas. You also can’t apply for council housing if you’re seeking asylum.

Who gets prioritised?

As with eligibility, decisions over who to prioritise (known as giving “reasonable preference”) on social housing waiting lists vary between local authorities, but those in specific circumstances must get reasonable preference.

According to the housing charity Shelter, these are people who are:

• legally homeless or at risk of domestic abuse or other violence
• living in overcrowded, bad or dangerous housing conditions
• needing to move for health, disability or welfare reasons.

You may also be given priority if you need to live in a particular area for care-giving or care-receiving needs, or if you have a child who can only get special educational needs support in a certain area.

Certain members or spouses of members of the armed forces, or people with other urgent needs (for example, a sudden disability), can be given extra priority if they have one of the above urgent housing needs.

As mentioned earlier, local authorities can also choose to give extra priority based on other factors, such as how long you’ve been on the waiting list, whether you’re in work, and previous tenancy records.

Being given priority doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be offered a home quickly. Citizens Advice says: “It’s likely to take you a long time to get an offer—even if you get priority in your area. In areas with long waiting lists, you might not be offered a home at all.”

British families aren’t being sent to the ‘bottom of the housing list’ in favour of migrants

A number of politicians have claimed that migrants are being prioritised for council housing, or that British families are being de-prioritised in favour of migrants.

These claims have been made following the government’s decision not to proceed with the Conservatives’ plans to introduce the “UK connection test” described above.

But this doesn’t mean that migrants are being prioritised ahead of those born in the UK as a matter of course.

As we explained above, most recent migrants aren’t eligible to apply for social housing—this includes asylum seekers, who can’t apply for housing or any other mainstream benefits (though they may be eligible for accommodation and a cash allowance if destitute).

In its response to a consultation of the previous government’s proposals published earlier this month, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said currently 90% of social lets are allocated to UK nationals, with the remainder allocated to “EEA, Swiss and Irish citizens or migrants in severe housing need”.

It added that as the proposed UK connection test “would have little to no discernible policy impact and that eligibility criteria for social housing is already tightly defined, the government does not agree that its introduction would be a justifiable use of taxpayer money. Migrants arriving in the UK on student or work visas, as well as those arriving in the country illegally with no leave to remain, will remain ineligible for an allocation of social housing, as they are now.”

That being said, asylum seekers who require accommodation are provided it by the government. Some asylum seekers are housed in hotels, while others are housed in accommodation provided by companies contracted by the Home Office, most of which is privately owned.

Some critics of government policy have argued that the increased need for housing for asylum seekers reduces the availability of housing for others, but it’s important to be clear that the housing provided for asylum seekers is not the same as social housing—a government spokesperson told Full Fact: “social housing stock is not used to accommodate supported asylum seekers”.

It’s of course possible that people who have migrated to the UK may be prioritised for social or council housing based on some of the standard reasonable preference circumstances explained above, but it’s misleading to suggest that, in general, immigrants are prioritised on social housing waiting lists ahead of families of those born here.

According to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, roughly the same proportion of UK-born and foreign-born residents live in social housing.

We’ve contacted Mr Anderson and Mr Jenrick for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.