Housing priority for immigrants ‘a myth’
Updated on 07 July 2009
Claims that immigrants to the UK get priority access to social housing are a myth, according to a new study.
A study commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found no evidence that either economic migrants or asylum seekers receive preferential treatment, although there is a general misconception that they do.
The study found that fewer than 2 per cent of social housing tenants moved to the UK in the past five years.
Almost 90 per cent are British born.
And the remaining 10 per cent moved here more than than five years ago.
The study into social housing comes just over a week after the prime minister announced measures to help local authorities house more local people.
Jon Snow speaks to the Housing Minister John Healey and Tim Finch from the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research, who carried out the study for the Equality Commission.
