Immigrants do not get fast-tracked social housing

From Housing Inside Housing publication's Housing Myth Buster (1)

Myth 9: Immigrants are taking social housing (2)

Busted? The notion that foreign nationals are taking up social tenancies in droves has been a pervasive message and the tabloid press often call for stronger curbs. Migrants taking up Britain’s housing stock is also a key flank of UKIP’s election campaign. ‘Currently a home has to be built every seven minutes just to cater for migrant demand,’ the party’s housing spokesperson Andrew Charalambous has said.

But are immigrants ‘jumping the queue’ and moving into social housing in their droves? The evidence would suggest no. According to CORE data (official social lettings statistics) about 90% of social lettings go to UK nationals. Six per cent are let to people inside the European Union and 4% go to those outside the UK.

Notes

(1) http://46.249.202.170/~oceanmed/housingMyths/?page_id=5
(2) http://46.249.202.170/~oceanmed/housingMyths/?p=55