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Councils refuse to reveal number of homes they give to foreigners: Authorities stop giving figures amid worries over impact of immigration

MPs have called for an inquiry into the suppression of council house information
Last year the Government acknowledged that nearly 800,000 public-owned houses are occupied by foreigners

By Steve Doughty

PUBLISHED: 00:49, 3 January 2013 | UPDATED: 07:55, 3 January 2013

Councils are trying to cover up the number of taxpayer-subsidised homes they are handing to foreigners, it was claimed yesterday.

Local authorities have stopped giving figures for how many houses and flats they have given to foreign citizens amid rising worries over the impacts of immigration, a report said.

Councils in London, where one in five publicly-financed homes are already known to be occupied by foreigners, are among those no longer supplying the figures.
Refusal: Local authorities have stopped giving figures for how many houses and flats they have given to foreign citizens amid rising worries over the impacts of immigration, a report said

Refusal: Local authorities have stopped giving figures for how many houses and flats they have given to foreign citizens amid rising worries over the impacts of immigration, a report said

Now MPs have called for an inquiry into the suppression of information on who gets council and housing association homes.

Labour�s Frank Field and Tory Nicholas Soames said in a statement on behalf of the cross-party Balanced Migration group: �This is a huge issue for many people.

�The Government must now launch a full inquiry into what is going on in the allocation of social housing in London.�

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The way subsidised homes have been going to foreign citizens and not to families with long-standing local connections has become politically sensitive as immigration hits record levels and the recession has undermined ordinary people�s ability to afford to buy or rent private homes.

Under Tony Blair�s government, senior Labour MPs complained the way in which local families in East London had failed to get public housing while new migrants succeeded had swelled support for the British National Party.

Last year ministers acknowledged that a fifth of the nearly 800,000 publicly-owned homes in London are occupied by families and individuals who are citizens of other countries and not of Britain.
MP Frank Field is among MPs to call for an inquiry
MP Nicholas Soames is among MPs to call for an inquiry

Outrage: MPs Frank Field, left, and Nicholas Soames, right, are among those calling for the Government to launch an inquiry into the issue of council housing

The report from the Migrationwatch think tank said that local authorities in London are now disclosing the nationality of new tenants for fewer than half the homes they let.

Four authorities � Greenwich, Hackney, Lambeth and Newham � have declined to take part in the Government�s count of social housing lettings even though it is a legal requirement for them to do so.

Two more councils, Ealing and Haringey, where there are high numbers of foreign citizens in social housing, have obscured their latest figures by claiming high numbers of tenants refuse to say what their nationality is.

The report said that since waiting lists for social housing are ten times longer than the number of homes made available each year, only a small proportion of families that ask will ever get a house from a council or a housing association.
Huge stock: Councils in London let 404,000 houses and flats while state-subsidised housing associations (file picture)

Huge stock: Councils in London let 404,000 houses and flats while state-subsidised housing associations (file picture)

Migrationwatch added: �It is important to be clear that the debate should be about foreign nationals, not people who are foreign born, who should be treated like any other British citizen.�

Its chairman Sir Andrew Green said: �It is deeply unsatisfactory that the information on new lets should be so chaotic given the huge importance of this issue to so many families.

The Government must make the nationality question compulsory. This could provide the basis for a renewed debate on the criteria by which social housing should be allocated.�

Coalition ministers have made some changes to social housing allocation rules since 2010, with the aim of giving a greater claim to families with close connections to a local area.

Councils in London let 404,000 houses and flats while state-subsidised housing associations, which do declare the nationality of tenants, have 376,000.

Before the recession Whitehall calculations said that the cost to taxpayers of each socially-owned house or flat was on average �62,000. The figure suggests social housing in London has cost taxpayers almost �50billion.

This is a case in question regarding councils, DO THEY WORK FOR YOU? OR DO YOU WORK FOR THEM.
Its time these" jobs worths" with the gold plated pension that you pay for, lost their jobs
It would not surprise me if the people working in the housing dept were foreigners themselves.
GET OUT OF THE EC, OUT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND THROW OF THE FOREIGN JUNK WHO HAVE TAKEN OUR HOMES, JOBS AND MONEY.