The report Who is being allocated social housing in London? analyses 2010/11 CoRE lettings data from local authorities and housing associations.
The report's main findings are:
- In 2010/11 the overall proportion of lets to foreign nationals in London was 11 per cent.
- 45 per cent of all social lets in Ealing were to foreign nationals.
- 6 per cent of social lets in Newham were to foreign nationals.
- A large number of lettings were not recorded on CoRE.
- Councils apply concept of 'local connection' in allocations inconsistently.
The report has been picked up by Labour MP Frank Field who spoke on Radio 4's Today programme, making the link between its findings and his private member's bill that seeks to give 'good citizens' additional priority for social housing.
On Twitter, Peter Brown, CEO of Herefordshire Housing described the report and media attention as "groundwork for the publication of the Allocation of Accommodation:guidance for LAs".
Metropolitan Migration Foundation (part of social housing group Metropolitan) published the findings of a YouGov survey into public opinions about housing and migration. This showed that most people think that when it comes to qualifying for social housing, it shouldn't make a difference if people were born outside the UK if they have lived here for most of their lives. Only one in five said that someone should be less eligible because they were worn outside the UK.
ReplyDeleteBarbara Roche, Chair of Metropolitan, commented on the poll, saying that "living in the local area and having local ties is seen as a much more important factor than having a ‘birthright’ to social housing. The poll indicates that the public want to be sure social housing is allocated fairly and people should not be discriminated against for not being born in the UK.”
The survey also gave an interesting insight into the public's views on the relationship between income or employment status and priority for social housing.
Read the full findings here.
Jill Rutter from ippr, writing in a personal capacity in the left-wing blog Left Foot Forward commented:
ReplyDelete"Even by Migration Watch’s standards, their paper on social housing was a badly researched attempt to raise tensions. It concluded that 11 per cent of social housing lets in London go to foreign nationals: in a city where 37 per cent of the population is foreign-born, what can you expect?"
In a written parliamentary response on 17 May to a question from Frank Field MP, Grant Shapps said:
ReplyDelete"Based on data from the English Housing Survey data for 2009-10, it is estimated that around 20% of ‘household reference persons’ (the modern definition for ‘head’ of household) in the social rented sector in London did not identify themselves as British or Irish in the survey; there is uncertainty around the precise figure due to sampling effects. Figures for 2008-09 present a similar picture.
"Such estimates provide a strong argument for the coalition Government's reforms to give councils greater powers and flexibilities over the allocation of social housing, so greater weight can be given both to those with local connections and to current and former members of the armed forces."