Tory plans to evict foreign nationals from social housing would leave 'families at risk of homelessness'

Tory plans to evict foreign nationals from social housing would leave 'families at risk of homelessness' The Conservative scheme which would see any single person living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish or EU citizen given six months to move, even if they have children The Tories have been accused of putting families at risk of homelessness over plans to strip foreign nationals of their right to social housing. The Conservatives claim around 230,000 homes would become available as a result of their plan to limit social housing entitlements, which would see any single person living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish or EU citizen booted out, even if they have children. Foreign nationals with settled status, refugee status, or specific humanitarian protections can currently qualify for social housing, and anyone with EU settled status would not be evicted. Couples, where neither of them are UK or EU citizens, and they do not have EU settled status, will lose their entitlement. Tenants who do not qualify under the proposed policy would be expected to move out of their homes within six months. Labour accused Kemi Badenoch of copying Reform, and failing to fix 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. “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.” It comes just months after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would evict all foreign nationals from social housing if his party was in power, claiming Britain is currently a “two-tier state against white people”. Andy Burnham previously claimed UK is in the grip of a "housing crisis" and vowed to deliver "the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period". In 2024/25, 88.5% of main householders – the person in whose name the social home is rented – 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.