May’s plan for ‘landlord spies’ hits opposition
Theresa May's plans to demand landlords check the immigration papers of people renting their properties have come to a screeching halt following opposition from the Liberal Democrats.
Nick Clegg forced the home secretary to restrict the plans to a pilot in a single area, with the full scheme only going ahead after the election.
Campaigners, landlords, immigrants' rights groups and MPs have warned that the plans could increase homelessness and help unscrupulous landlords operate in the black market.
"I’m not quite sure how – if you can't get a bank account and you can't get somewhere to stay – whether that is actually going to result in people leaving the country," Michael Forsyth, who served as Scotland secretary under John Major, told the Daily Politics.
"Are we not going to get a sort of black economy occurring of unscrupulous landlords and a cash economy as people get around the rules?"
The bill would have fined landlords £3,000 for failing to check immigration statuses of potential tenants.
Those taking in lodgers or sub-tenants would also have been fined, although at a lower level.
"What this means in practice is a system of identity checks for all, since it is necessary for British citizens or people with permanent residence to prove that they are lawfully present in the UK if and when checked," the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association said during consultation.
"British citizens, European economic area nationals and third country nationals alike would be required to produce identity documents at many turns in a scheme that would be intrusive, bullying, ineffective and expensive and likely racist and unlawful to boot."
The National Landlords Association chief executive Richard Lambert said the government was asking private landlords to do the job of the border agency.
"Obviously landlords cannot replace the Border Agency and they shouldn't be asked to do their job," he told Sky News.
"Existing referencing will pick up immigration issues anyway but if the government wants to put something in place beyond that, the important thing is that it is simple and straight forward to use."
Campaigners pointed out that landlords are unlikely to familiarise themselves with the variety of immigration statuses on offer to people, or the 404 types of identity documents available to European citizens alone.
The system could lead landlords to simply refuse accommodation to migrants to avoid the work, potentially raising issues of discrimination.
Refugee Council chief executive Maurice Wren said: "Requiring landlords and banks to check people’s immigration status is simply unworkable. Landlords and bank staff are not immigration officials and the types of documentation carried by asylum seekers and refugees is varied and complex.
"These new measures will undoubtedly lead to wrongful denial of access to housing and bank accounts for those with a right to live in the UK, due to confusion about unfamiliar identity documents and fear of sanctions.
"Refugees and asylum seekers came to the UK escaping persecution. It is our responsibility to offer protection and a place of safety, not to discriminate and to marginalise them further."
The bill would also require temporary migrants, like overseas students, to make a financial contribution to the NHS in advance of their arrival in case they make use of health services.
It will also force doctors to check people's immigration status before offering them treatment.
Doctors warned the plans would prevent them giving care to vulnerable people – potentially risking public health by not dealing with issues as they arise.
There are also concerns they will become bogged down in paperwork amid an already hectic work schedule.
"Although we can see them as an emergency under the new proposals, it does mean that there is an awful lot more paperwork involved so we have got to spend an awful lot more time checking on people at a time when they are at their most vulnerable," David Lloyd, a London GP, told Sky News.
Experts have questioned why the measures are even being implemented, given health tourism is understood to account for just 0.01% of NHS expenditure.
"The principle is reflecting a reality," May told the Today programme.
"That's why most people are saying it's not fair, we need to do something about this.
"We are just going to ask them to make a contribution. I am talking about something most people would recognise as being fairer."
Other measures will require banks to check databases against known immigration offenders before opening up a new account.
The immigration status of driving licence applicants will also be checked.
The ground of appeal for deportation will be reduced from 17 to four with many deportees forced to appeal from outside the country.
The deportation measure is partly a response to the long saga of Abu Qatada, who used human rights legislation to avoid deportation.
But ironically, none of today's measures would have made any difference in his case.
Shadow immigration minister David Hanson said the bill avoided addressing the big issues in immigration.
"There seems to be nothing in the promised bill to tackle problems at border control, which is getting increasingly shambolic, nor deal with long delays in getting electronic checks in place, or the UKBA bureaucratic failings that have prevented foreign criminals being deported," he said.
"Nor are they tackling exploitation in the labour market which raises greatest public concern.
"For example the bill is an opportunity to tackle problems such as enforcement of the minimum wage which would respond to concerns about the impact of EU migration."
The most recent official immigration figures show a net flow of 176,000 migrants to the UK in the year to December 2012 – the first spike in inwards movement following five consecutive quarters of decline.
