Reform UK has said foreign nationals should not be allowed to live in social housing or house shares in Wales. The motion, debated in the Senedd, was rejected by the majority of Members of the Senedd (MSs).
Motion details and support
Reform UK Senedd member for Gwyr Abertawe Francesca O'Brien said: "Social housing in Wales is subsidised by public money. It should be reserved for the people of this country but, under this government, it isn't."
"Reform UK believes it should be kept for the people of Wales and the United Kingdom. We should be prioritising our own families, our veterans, and those who have contributed to our great country," she said. "Foreign nationals should not have access to council and social housing and they should not have access to HMOs that our councils license. If they cannot support themselves the taxpayer shouldn't be expected to do it for them."
She described the asylum system in Wales as "deranged".
Opposition and criticism
Opposition parties accused the party of not properly considering how the policy would work in practice, how it could take away the rights of Irish and EU citizens, and risk affecting international students, alongside any foreign nationals with a legal right to live in the UK.
Reform UK wants each Welsh council to have the power to set qualification rules for its register and close it to foreign nationals by "stripping it back to the absolute minimum".
Conservative MS Peter Fox called it a "headline-grabbing motion" which he said fell apart when anyone examined how it would actually work. He questioned how the motion would affect Irish citizens and EU citizens with settled status covered by the EU withdrawal agreement and students.
"The reality is that Reform's motion would not just affect the groups they want to talk about. It would affect foreign students renting rooms in HMOs while studying at Welsh universities, it would affect workers who have come here legally, and it would affect Irish citizens whose rights are protected under the common travel area. Most significantly it would also affect EU citizens who were given settled status after Brexit," he said.
"These are people who were explicitly told that there would be no change to their rights if they were already lawfully resident in the United Kingdom. Those commitments were written into the withdrawal agreement and form part of our international obligations. So Reform need to answer a simple question: are they really proposing that the United Kingdom should tear up agreements it freely entered into, creating uncertainty for British citizens living abroad and risk retaliatory action from our European neighbours, all to pursue a policy they have no realistic route in implementing? That is the logical consequence of what they are proposing."
Housing crisis and government response
Plaid Cymru Caerdydd Penarth MS Kiera Marshall said: "People who arrive here illegally, asylum seekers, and migrants on student or work visas are not eligible for social housing."
"According to census data there are an estimated 28,000 non-UK-born people living in social housing in Wales. Meanwhile an estimated 170,000 people are waiting for social housing in Wales," she said. "The housing crisis is way bigger than the question of migration."
"Even if the party opposite got their disturbed dream of making 28,000 people homeless it would not begin to tackle the problem. And this is the only answer they have got: scapegoating migrants. The Reform UK Wales manifesto does not even commit to building a single council or social home. Not one. Not a commitment to a single one. They have no plan to ensure the adequate supply of social housing for everyone whereas this Plaid Cymru government is getting on with their commitment to build 20,000 social homes."
Joe Martin, Reform UK MS for Caerdydd Penarth, said: "Foreign nationals living in Welsh and British social housing should be given a grace period of three months to find private housing, after which they should be deported."
"It isn't the responsibility of the Welsh or British taxpayer to fund the living arrangements of people from overseas. People moving to the UK should be able to afford to buy or rent a house at normal market rates before they move here. If they can't afford to live here without help from the taxpayer then they shouldn't come to the UK," he said.
He added: "The people of Wales deserve to be a priority in their own country. They are a unique and special people with a shared history that goes back thousands of years. If, like some of my colleagues, you want to move here and join us, you are more than welcome, but you cannot require the taxpayer to fund your lifestyle."
"I cannot even fathom the entitlement required to look at a country with failing public services, patients dying in hospital corridors, and think yourself entitled to subsidised housing when you aren't even from there. If I moved to China or Eritrea or Bangladesh and told them to house me they would flatly tell me 'no'. They are right to do so and we should do the same. I do not accept for a moment that it's the moral responsibility of the poorest nation in the UK to give up its social housing for people that aren't even from the UK," he said.
Green Party Caerdydd Penarth MS Anthony Slaughter said the debate was made up of "ugly, divisive, and hateful rhetoric".
"Foreign nationals or not, everyone needs somewhere to live. It is their human right. We need more social housing that meets the needs of everyone in our communities. Scarcity must not be used to pit communities against one another," he said. "This motion is nonsensical, hateful, and inflammatory. And words have real consequences. I have said this time and time again in this Siambr but, sadly, it bears repeating."
"Divisive rhetoric, such as we've heard today, only stands to cause division in our communities. And this fearmongering is the sort of thing that leads people to feel even more unsafe in their homes and communities than they already do. People across Wales see this for what it is. They see you for what you're saying," he said.
Responding to the debate, housing minister Sian Gwenllian said: "The Reform motion calls for a restriction on access to social housing on the grounds of nationality. We cannot, of course, support that proposal. Social housing is allocated on the basis of housing need among those who are legally eligible. It's not allocated on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, or place of birth."
"Legislation already controls the right to social housing. Immigration status and legal residence are already key considerations by which to determine someone's eligibility. It's only people who have the right to remain who are eligible for housing support and social housing. Social housing is not allocated to people seeking asylum," she said.
She said the suggestion that families with children would be forced to leave within three months was "inhumane".
"This motion, therefore, misrepresents the current system. The challenge we face is one of housing supply and the solution is to build more homes and make the best possible use of the homes that we have," the housing minister said.
The motion was rejected by MSs with 57 voting against and 31 for. An amendment, backed by the Welsh Government and Labour, supporting "fair and sustainable dispersal arrangements" for asylum seekers passed with 57 for and 31 against.
