Social housing allocation and immigrant communities

Article

Widespread media reports suggest that migrants receive priority in the allocation of social housing, and in doing so displace non-migrants. The Equality and Human Rights Commission decided to commission research to look at the facts behind these stories and to examine the allocation of social housing in England.

Widespread media reports suggest that migrants receive priority in the allocation of social housing, and in doing so displace non-migrants. The Equality and Human Rights Commission decided to commission research to look at the facts behind these stories and to examine the allocation of social housing in England.

The research asked three questions:

  • Who is entitled to social housing?
  • Who receives social housing?
  • Do some groups have unfair access to social housing?

This study is set in the context of increased international immigration to the UK and a reduction in social housing stock. Although international migration has always been a feature of national life, this aspect of population change has increased substantially since the early 1990s.

Related items

  1. An unrecognisable woman playing a slot machine in a social club

    Reforming gambling taxation: How to lift half a million children out of poverty

    A key priority for the government’s upcoming child poverty strategy should be to remove the two-child limit and scrap the household benefit cap.
  2. A primary school classroom. In the foreground are pots of pencils and rulers and water bottles. Children in blue school uniform are blurred in the background

    The IPPR Inclusion Taskforce

    Our new inclusion taskforce will focus on reforming England's failing special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
  3. Southport high street on a sunny day. A colourful selection of people out shopping and some planters full of flowers

    Places to come together: Rebuilding local solidarities against the far right

    A discussion paper on the fight for local investment and why government must create, facilitate and maintain spaces where solidarity might thrive.