The Conservative Party has been accused of putting families at risk of homelessness over plans to strip foreign nationals of their right to social housing. The proposal would require any single person living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish, or EU citizen to move out within six months, even if they have children.
Policy details
The Conservatives claim around 230,000 homes would become available as a result of the plan to limit social housing entitlements. Under the current system, foreign nationals with settled status, refugee status, or specific humanitarian protections can qualify for social housing, and anyone with EU settled status would not be evicted under the proposed policy.
Couples where neither partner is a UK or EU citizen and do not have EU settled status would lose their entitlement. Tenants who do not qualify would be expected to leave their homes within six months.
Labour's response
Labour accused Kemi Badenoch of copying Reform UK's policy and failing to address the issues created by her party in government. A Labour Party spokesperson said: "This is an unserious, unworkable proposal, copied from Reform, that does nothing to tackle the housing crisis the Tories themselves created."
The spokesperson added: "People without Indefinite Leave to Remain are already ineligible for social housing, so this policy would primarily affect refugees and long-term UK residents who have contributed to this country but are not British citizens, including NHS staff. It would also leave more families at risk of homelessness, while driving up the use of temporary accommodation at the taxpayers' expense."
"No amount of headline-chasing, or following Reform to the extremes, can hide the damage the Tories did to our housing system. The least they could do is acknowledge their failures and apologise."
Context and statistics
The proposal comes months after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would evict all foreign nationals from social housing if his party were in power, claiming Britain is currently a "two-tier state against white people".
In 2024/25, 88.5% of main householders in social housing were UK or Irish nationals, and 11.5% were non-UK/Irish nationals, according to the English Housing Survey. There are an estimated 470,000 non-UK and non-Irish citizens living in social housing.
