Farage: "I will evict foreign nationals from council housing"

[dutchman]

Migrants will be given three months to find private accommodation or face being deported under Reform leader’s plans



Foreign nationals living in social housing would be given three months to find private accommodation or face being deported under a Reform UK government, Nigel Farage has announced.

In a new Substack essay, being published at 8pm on Sunday, Mr Farage vowed that veterans and “long-term local residents” would instead be given priority, along with domestic abuse survivors and care-leavers.

Non-UK citizens who failed to find private accommodation after this “three-month grace period” would lose their right to remain under Reform’s plans.

The Telegraph understands that dual nationals, who hold both British and foreign citizenship, would have their welfare entitlement, including housing benefit, reduced but would not be automatically forced to leave social housing.

The policy suggests Reform is hardening its position on immigration before the Makerfield by-election on Thursday, where polling indicates it is losing support to Restore Britain.

Mr Farage is launching his monthly Substack newsletter with a 5,000-word essay on diversity, equity and inclusion and its effect on Britain.

He said thousands of social tenancies had been given to refugees since 2020 and described that as an “absurdity”, vowing to prioritise British nationals for social homes.

“Foreign nationals who are unable to relocate to private rented accommodation after a three-month grace period will lose their right to remain and be liable for deportation under Operation Restoring Justice,” he wrote.

“Residency and preference requirements for social housing will be used to ensure that veterans and long-term local residents will be preferenced for social housing, with exceptions only for groups like domestic abuse survivors and care leavers.”

Mr Farage claimed that guidelines in place for housing associations have led to a redistribution of housing stock “away from the white British populations who originally inhabited areas”.

The Reform leader added that the “outflow from social housing has been mirrored in the dismantling of communities” and said he would set out plans to reverse the trend.

Mr Farage also claimed that a third of social tenants in London were born outside the UK and Ireland, and cited the recent case of the first lady of Sierra Leone renting a council flat.

Last week, Southwark council repossessed the property of Fatima Jabbe-Bio, who had been a tenant since 2007, after a local authority investigation.

Mr Farage added that during the last century, “rules which gave priority to local people and ties to the area were stripped away, in part on the grounds that they discriminated against Britain’s newly diverse population, only to be reimposed in part only after massive disruption to the social fabric of these areas”.

In a 2024 report, the Migration Observatory said that one in 10 new social housing lettings in the 2022-23 financial year had a non-UK citizen as the lead tenant, adding this was most likely down to the rising share of non-UK citizens in the population.

The report added that according to Census data, 7 per cent of people living in social housing in 2021 had a non-UK passport, compared to 5 per cent of people in 2011.

Reform has claimed it would deport around 600,000 migrants over five years under Operation Restoring Justice, which was set out last year.

At a press conference in April, Mr Farage pledged to revoke up to 400,000 refugees’ right to asylum and send them home if they entered the UK illegally.

Reform has previously announced that it would abolish indefinite leave to remain, scrapping migrants’ rights to qualify for permanent settlement in the UK after five years.

That would mean migrants from countries outside the EU, whose citizens have protected settled status, would have to reapply for visas. The party has made it clear that it would not deport children in migrant families who were born in Britain and are therefore British nationals, but has not stated publicly what would happen to their parents.