No evidence of housing queue-jumping
Tuesday, 7 July 2009 12:00 AM
By Liz Stephens
There is no evidence that immigrants are able to jump council housing queues, according to a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Once new arrivals settle in the UK and are entitled to help, the same proportion receive housing as UK-born residents.
Currently just 11 per cent of new arrivals get help with housing - almost all of them asylum seekers.
Housing minister John Healey said: "The report shows there is a belief, a wrong belief, that there is a bias in the system."
Last week, Gordon Brown announced guidance would change so that local people get priority for social housing in England.
However, the report suggests there is no requirement for such positive discrimination.
Mr Healey insisted that the changes introduced by the prime minister would not alter the allocation of housing on the basis of need or the policy that economic migrants are barred from applying for social housing within their first five years of settling in the UK.
However, the housing minister said new guidance to councils will enable them to help people who have been waiting the longest and those in rural areas who have strong local or family connections.
The Conservatives have said such measures would be illegal under existing law and the forthcoming equality bill.
EHRC chairman Trevor Phillips blamed a "failure of social housing supply" for the myth that immigrants were jumping queues.
He called for government to address more effectively the concerns which had led to the perception of unfairness.
"We have to recognise that people's perceptions are powerful, so it's vital that social housing providers and policy makers work to foster understanding about what is really happening on the ground," he said.
The BNP has campaigned heavily on the issue, claiming that British people are neglected in the social housing queue in favour of newly arrived immigrants.
However, Mr Healey denied that the government had been forced into action to counter the BNP's influence after it succeeded in winning two seats in the European parliament.
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