AIBU to ask if the plan to 'prioritise British families' for social housing is an attack on asylum seekers or a long overdue reform?

[Locutus2000]

The Grauniad (again, sorry)

Highlights:

Downing Street wants to give UK families higher priority for social housing in a controversial scheme that will be badged as “British homes for British workers”, the Guardian can reveal.

Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: “This policy amounts to nothing more than scapegoating at its worst. It is unnecessary, unenforceable and unjust. Not only does it ignore the fact that there are already stringent rules so only UK citizens or those with settled status can access homes for social rent, but it blames a group of people for a housing emergency that they did not create.”

Under current rules, local housing authorities are meant to decide social housing allocation based on need, giving priority to those who are homeless or living in overcrowded or squalid conditions. Refugees are allowed to claim social housing, but anyone who is not entitled to benefits is not, meaning most foreigners in the UK are already excluded.

Ministers could also seek to strengthen the rules introduced by the Brown government so that people have to show they have stronger or longer connections to an area before being given priority for housing.

It just seems like dog-whistling to the faction incensed by 'foreigners' taking all the social housing. Equally, there is sod all social housing left and I can understand people's frustration. My elderly neighbours are still bitter about being 'pushed out' of London and perceive this to be a result of immigration.

I can see this being a popular policy even if based on a dubious perception.

• Note from MNHQ: Title has been edited at the OP's request to include the words 'for social housing'.

Families are never left on the street even if they can only get a B&B
It is single people that need some focus. They are left to rot.

So under this policy a single man in his 30s with British citizenship would get a house over a Polish family with young children who have 'only' been in the UK for 10 years? I can see why that would be appealing to some people, but it's not a policy I feel particularly comfortable with.

The problem is that the British population who have paid in taxes for generations, see housing going to those who have not contributed, and it creates anger and resentment. You only have to look to Germany and the AfD's representation in the Bundestag to see where that can lead. We don't want to drive people into the arms of the BNP.

So there has to be a balance. The obvious answer would be more social housing, banning of second homes, banning homes being left empty for more than 6 months or being used as AirBnBs, so freeing them up for people to live in.

There are no easy answers.

A nation's first responsibility is to its own citizens, but part of that responsibility is not allowing in too many new people who can't provide for themselves within a reasonable length of time. Housing is just the tip of that particular iceberg.

Option C - cynical vote harvesting in times of desperation

Wtf has this government done for British workers?

There are loads of policies they could have pursued that would have given people stable affordable housing if that was at all a priority. It obviously isn't though. To get to the end of all those years in power and then blame "foreign nationals" (and I agree that this is a deliberately obfuscatory phrase) for their failure on this front is desperate.

But they are not saying the houses are to be prioritised for people that pay taxes. Just British citizens.
I am sure a lot of people would love it if you got bumped up the list the more tax you paid

Go watch the BBC “How to get a council house” tv series on You Tube. You will see time and time again people who just moved here get housing over people been waiting years. Because it’s based on need. So if you show up with 5 kids and need a home of course your top of the list.

im in social housing I have great neighbours but 90% of our block the adults weren’t born in the UK. From all over the world they came to work etc. but they still got a home over people I grew up who are still on the waiting list. They have right to live here, move in with extended family who are seriously over crowded then top of the list they go. So yea they are more in need than someone who’s stuck living with their parents and never going afford their own home but not particular fair either.

If I moved to Australia with right papers and moved in with family made myself over crowded. Qualified social housing over a single parent living with her parents on the list for 10 years I assume they would be to happy either.

It’s a valid issue being dressed up as something it’s not. We have major housing issues in this country but asylum seekers aren’t subject to a fast lane to housing - they will probably fulfill criteria and score highly under most councils/HA associations just by the circumstance of being an asylum seeker.

The current cabinet are talking out of their arse and window dressing to make it look like they’re doing something. They tried to offer the electorate something with changes to nursery provision which looks like it’s dead in the water before it’s even launched in April. They seem surprised they’re not governing a country with the same resources it had 15 years ago.

The UK offered protection to 23,841 people (including dependants) in 2022 according to .gov.uk. So maybe 15,000 dwellings needed.

The vast majority of new arrivals were on student visas, work visas or to be with family, and very few of those are eligible for social housing (some of the family ones).

This is a good point. I think both sides have valid points. I can see why some people would get upset that their offspring do not benefit from their contribution which is a fair sentiment but also as you say if they think they are owed some kind of right without contributing themselves then it’s fair to offer a family willing to contribute to ongoing society priority. This is a hard one I’m back on the fence now. ☺️

While they are at it i hope they prioritise spending on our school infrastructure instead of prioritising Foreign Aid.

The Tories are clearly going for the Racist Moron vote.

Winning votes by scratching a bigots itch

This ^

Tories vote-chasing.

Have they really?

Are they happy to put it bluntly wipe the bums of older British people like the Irish and Spanish citizens I personally know who have social housing? Oh and these individuals have been in the UK for over 40 years and over 30 years respectively.

Edited to say - citizenship and skin colour are necessarily what you expect.

Wow, talk about 'tell it as it is'!

It's a soundbite with no teeth - if the Tories had wanted to restrict access to social housing then they have had 13 years in which to do so. If they wanted to restrict the number of immigrants they could have done that too - they brought in the new visa "points" system that saw the highest number of visas ever given out to come and live here.

If they wanted Bristish families to have housing they could have built it. It's all a nonsense. Not any immigrants fault, they just want a better life and opportunities to thrive or to study but the profits resulting from increased migration such as low wages, increased comeptition for jobs and rising housing and land values all go into private hands whilst the costs ( providing housing benefit, UC top ups, education, health, pressure on infrastructure, rapid changes in demographics of areas, increased competition for jobs and houses, all of us scrambling around for scraps) are socialised ( ie. paid Joe Public). Just how the Tories like it.

This is just electioneering. The housing system in the UK is broken and has been for decades. Social Housing being sold off and not replaced, not enough new homes being built.

If they wanted Bristish families to have housing they could have built it.

British doesn't equal white.

People forget that not only Britain but other European countries had colonies so people can be on passports you don't expect.

Dog whistle racism to pick up votes from the hard of thinking. The Tories have reduced the amount of social housing so barely anyone can access it. They are still not going to provide what is needed for desperate families , whatever their background

There are only three types of people in social housing already: British nationals, individuals with settled status who can access all the same services as British nationals, and refugees, who can access all the same services as British nationals. That’s it.

Yet another policy claiming to cut down on immigration that will actually do no such thing, like doubling the wage needed for a UK national to be able to bring over a spouse from abroad. How many “immigrants” does that account for? Roughly 12,000. Out of the 300,000 the Tories have let in per year.

It’s just more performative cruelty from this government. Trying to appeal to the far right before they lose them to some splinter group of even worse conservatives.

Exactly this. Earlier this month my local paper ran a story about a teen mum and boyfriend who were living with her parents and couldn’t get social housing despite having a newborn. Cue all the bigots, “if you had come over on a boat, you’d be housed by now”. Not one person commented that they weren’t homeless and just because you have a newborn doesn’t guarantee a home!

im in social housing I have great neighbours but 90% of our block the adults weren’t born in the UK. From all over the world they came to work etc. but they still got a home over people I grew up who are still on the waiting list. They have right to live here, move in with extended family who are seriously over crowded then top of the list they go. So yea they are more in need than someone who’s stuck living with their parents and never going afford their own home but not particular fair either.

I've seen this as well but I don't like this police either and at the core of the problem is need more social housing and housing more generally.

However my siblings live there been load of HA building last few years which is how they got places but at same time many other locals never cease to moan about building works and extra housing and more burden on local services.

We need to build more houses but at same time there's a lot of opposition to doing so.

So there has to be a balance. The obvious answer would be more social housing, banning of second homes, banning homes being left empty for more than 6 months or being used as AirBnBs, so freeing them up for people to live in. This and also stop houses and apartments being bought by foreign nationals as investments and left empty. Come and live here and contribute to the economy - fine. Make housing such as new apartments unavailable - not fine. I know they tend to be at the luxury end but it all adds to the general house price inflation.