Established British families should be given priority over economic migrants for council housing, government minister Margaret Hodge has said
BBC News:
She has called for a rethink of social housing policy, to take account of length of residence, citizenship and national insurance contributions.
Social housing was limited and British families had a "legitimate sense of entitlement" to their own homes.
But Labour MP Keith Vaz said many would find Mrs Hodge's comments "offensive".
Industry Minister Mrs Hodge said rules should "promote tolerance rather than inviting division".
She told the BBC she was aware it was a difficult issue, but she was trying to listen to her constituents' concerns and wanted to start a debate.
She said she understood the reasons why genuine refugees needed access to public resources, but said most new families were economic migrants who had chosen to come to Britain.
"In exercising that choice as an economic migrant, should they then presume to have automatic access immediately to public social housing?" Mrs Hodge said.
"Of course it's true that we need to develop more social housing," she added.
"But however much social housing you do create, you will nevertheless have to take decisions to ration what will always be a finite resource."
She said white, black and Asian British families on low incomes, who had lived in an area for several generations, could not get their own homes and all felt there was an "essential unfairness" in the system.
"They feel that they've grown up in the borough, they're entitled to a home, and that sense of entitlement is often overridden by a real need of new immigrant families who come in, perhaps locked into private accommodation, poor accommodation, overcrowded."
She said white, black and Asian British families on low incomes, who had lived in an area for several generations, could not get their own homes and all felt there was an "essential unfairness" in the system.
"They feel that they've grown up in the borough, they're entitled to a home, and that sense of entitlement is often overridden by a real need of new immigrant families who come in, perhaps locked into private accommodation, poor accommodation, overcrowded."
A message to my fellow immigrants: Industry Minister Margaret Hodge argues that newcomers' rights cannot come before those born here
posted by Adam Lawson @ 2:16 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hi
I don't see why someone coming into the country should expect social housing, when those living here already have a housing problem.
It appears to me that this is the same problem as those who buy second homes in an area pushing up house prices beyond that affordable by the local population.
Luckily I have my own house, shared with the Building Society. Given the current price and my earnings level I would not currently be able to buy my own property as a first time buyer.
Are there any countries that give social housing to immigrants over their own citizens?
We recently had an immigrant family move into a house bought by the council just down the road. The house would be on the market for in excess of £150,000, way out of the price range of first time buyers. The daughter of a chap in work is living at his place with her partner and daughter. There isn't space enough and the daughters partner is in full time work. My thought is that they should have priority when it comes to housing.
Paul.
Why are the British letting in foreigners who need the government to provide them with housing? I fail to see how this is helping the British economy.
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