Council Housing: Foreign Nationals
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of local authority housing allocations were made to households where the primary applicant was not a UK national in the last 12 months.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
People are generally eligible for social housing if they have leave to remain in the UK and have recourse to public funds. The Home Office decides whether persons from abroad have leave to remain in the UK and whether they have recourse to public funds.
Only individuals that are eligible can join housing registers and be given a social housing tenancy. For those who are eligible, housing needs will be considered on an equal basis in accordance with the relevant local authority’s housing allocation scheme.
According to the relevant 2021 Census extract, there were 796,000 households living in the social rented sector in England in March 2021 that were headed by someone who was not born in the UK. It is important to note that such households may contain UK nationals as well as non-UK national lead tenants.
My Department’s annual social housing lettings statistical series details the number of the new social housing lettings by the nationality of the lead tenant. It can be found on gov.uk here.
As per our pre-announced schedule, and in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, data for 2024/25 is currently being processed and quality assured and will be published in Winter 2025. Data for 2025/26 is currently being collected and will be published in Winter 2026.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →