The Conservative party has revealed plans to bar foreign nationals from accessing social housing, including terminating existing tenancies for non-EU citizens and preventing all foreign citizens from obtaining new ones. The proposal aims to free up an estimated 228,144 households for British citizens, according to party estimates.
Under the proposed policy, any non-EU citizen living in social housing, regardless of whether they have children, would have their tenancy ended. Couples where both partners are non-EU citizens would also be affected. However, couples where at least one partner is a British, Irish, or EU citizen would be allowed to remain in their homes.
Shadow housing spokesman Sir James Cleverly stated that the current situation leaves British citizens who pay taxes for social housing at the back of the queue. "Every home handed to someone who arrived last year is a home withheld from a family who has waited a decade on the list," he said, adding, "We will put British citizens first and stop spending taxpayers' money on social housing for foreign nationals."
Data from the Centre for Policy Studies indicates a rise in the proportion of new social homes allocated to non-EU nationals, reaching 11.3 percent last year, up from 10.4 percent in 2023 and 5.8 percent in 2010. An estimated 470,000 non-UK and non-Irish citizens currently reside in social housing. Some local authorities, such as Brent, Leicester, and Manchester, have reported a disproportionately high number of non-EU nationals in social homes.
Reform UK has also proposed a similar policy, with leader Nigel Farage stating in June that foreign nationals would be required to find private accommodation within three months or face possible deportation. Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe has also suggested barring non-British citizens from social housing, Universal Credit, and disability benefits.
Rob McNeil, deputy director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, commented that such proposals have appeared in various forms previously. He suggested that if implemented, the impact on British citizens' access to social housing might be minimal if responsibility for housing non-citizens at risk of homelessness shifts to temporary accommodation.
Charities have criticized the plans. Sarah Elliott of Shelter argued that the proposals are divisive and would lead to people being evicted from their homes, increasing homelessness, and placing additional pressure on councils. She emphasized that the policy does not address the need for new social homes. A Labour Party spokesman called the proposal "unserious" and "unworkable," stating that individuals without indefinite leave to remain are already ineligible for social housing and that the policy would primarily affect refugees and long-term residents who contribute to the country but are not British citizens, including NHS staff. The Labour Party had previously scrapped plans introduced by the last Conservative government that required foreign nationals to have lived in the UK for ten years before qualifying for social housing.