Reports today suggest new homes built in this country will be required to house arriving migrants.
This is scaremongering. The majority of homes that developers sell in this country are to British nationals.
Nearly nine in ten social homes go to UK nationals and most councils have tough local connections rules in place to ensure housing goes to people who need it most. These rules mean people must have a connection to the local area in order to apply for social housing.
Social housing eligibility remains tightly controlled and migrants arriving in the UK on student or work visas are not eligible and nor are those who arrive in the country illegally with no leave to remain. It is also illegal for asylum seekers to access social housing.
The only way to meet the demand for housing is to build more of them. That’s why we’re pulling every lever to build 1.5 million homes and deliver the biggest increase to social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
Just recently we set out the biggest rewrite of planning rules in over a decade, so developments that meet clear standards can move quickly from plans to construction. And with our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act now law we’re going even further to accelerate housebuilding at scale.