Response to the National Union of Students International Students’ Committee
4 May, 2012

Briefing Paper No 2.15 shows a response sent to the International Students’ Committee of the National Union of Students who suggested a public debate on the government’s immigration policy towards international students.

Press Releases

Foreign Nationals Take 1 in 5 of London’s Social Housing
2 May, 2012

Figures just obtained from the Office of National Statistics show that foreign national families live in over 350,000 council and housing association properties in the capital while British nationals occupy 1.5 million. That is just under 20% of the entire stock of social homes which are occupied by those who have not been here long enough to obtain British nationality or have not bothered to do so.

These figures add to the growing evidence that the official data on who is being given new social housing lets massively under records the number going to foreign nationals in London. If they were only getting 11% of new lets they could not possibly now have 20% of the entire stock.

Migration Watch UK showed two weeks ago that while official data indicated that at least 11% of new social housing lets in London were given to foreign nationals there were huge gaps in the data. In some London Boroughs over one third of new tenants had no nationality recorded while, in others, only about half of new lets were included in the official statistics. This new data on who is actually occupying the stock of social housing shows the missing data on new lets is hiding the fact that a much larger proportion of social housing lets are going to foreign nationals than we have been led to believe.

Frank Field MP has written to the housing Minister calling for a public inquiry into who is getting social housing and under what criteria.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch, said “It seems that being British counts for nothing in the allocation of social housing. We are not suggesting that anyone is “jumping the queue” but it is now clear that the result of a system based almost entirely on need has been to favour foreign nationals. This has been covered up for too long. There must be an enquiry to get the facts straight.”

Notes to Editors:

1 Labour Force Survey looks at households across the UK. This includes data on Landlord type and nationality.

2 The Continuous Recording of Sales and Letting (CORE) is a national information source funded jointly by the Tenant Services Authority and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). It looks at new social housing lets.

NHS Risks Becoming ‘World Health Service’ as Lax Controls are Admitted
30 April, 2012

The Government has admitted that access to the NHS for anyone outside the UK and EU is so lax that, say campaigners, it leaves it wide open to abuse.

In a written Parliamentary reply, Simon Burns MP, the Minister of State for Health, confirmed that there is no formal requirement for anyone to provide documentation when registering with a GP

‘A decision on whether to register a foreign national who has a six month visitor visa is therefore currently for the GP to consider,’ he said.

‘What this means is that someone getting off a plane with a valid visitors visa, is, in effect, able to access the GP services of the NHS without ever having paid a penny into the system. Over one and a half million such visas were issued last year, ’ said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of think-tank Migrationwatch.

‘And once registered with a GP it is, in practice, an easy step to potentially highly expensive and long term treatment - all at the expense of the UK taxpayer with little or no prospect of the beneficiaries ever being charged for it.’

Sir Andrew said that as it was left to the discretion of the GP there is no reason why people who are in the country illegally should not also benefit from this policy.

‘It is clearly not the job of Doctors to act as an arm of the immigration service but there are clear and substantial risks of abuse in such a lax system and controls must be put in place,’ he said.

Sir Andrew said it was clear that the London public were deeply concerned over this issue. An opinion poll conducted among London adults found that 74% believe that everyone, including foreign nationals, should provide documents before gaining access to primary care under the NHS; only 14% disagreed.

Asked whether Boris Johnson had been right to issue a leaflet drawing attention to the fact that no documents were required, 52% said no and 33% said yes.

There was strong support for a Migrationwatch proposal that anyone who cannot supply a British passport or Birth certificate should have to apply to a regional office for a document to prove that they have a right to the NHS before they could be registered with a GP. 66% were in favour. 18% against and 16% did not know.

Said, Sir Andrew, ‘The present situation is outrageous. Everyone knows the pressure the NHS is under and its ever increasing cost to the taxpayer. To allow such easy and potentially hugely expensive access without any entitlement must be stopped at once, otherwise the NHS risks becoming the ‘World Health Service’. The government must act with urgency to close this gaping hole in the system.’

Ends

Notes to editors:

• The Parliamentary Answer referred to can be found at URL: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/.../120423w0006.htm
• 1.6 million visitor visas were issued in 2011. Visitor visa numbers can be found at the following link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/.../before-entry-q4-2011-tabs
• All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,138 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20th - 22nd April 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all London adults (aged 18+). To see the results click here

The Allocation of Social Housing to Foreign Nationals in London
14 April 2012

The proportion of social housing in London being allocated to foreign nationals may well be much higher than the public has been led to believe. That is the conclusion of a paper issued today by think-tank Migrationwatch.

When this issue last received public attention in 2009, the IPPR produced a report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which claimed that less than 2% of all social housing residents were people who had moved to Britain in the previous five years^[1]. They achieved this percentage by confining their study to those that had recently arrived and then making a comparison with the total of all existing lets throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the DCLG housing statistics have shown that the percentage of new social housing tenants who were foreign nationals has increased steadily over the past four years to 8.6% in 2010 – 11^[2] ; of these nearly half were to EEA nationals.

Today’s research, is focused on London where the waiting list increased by 60% between 2002 and 2010 to 362,000. It shows that at least 11% of social housing lets in London were given to foreign nationals. In the boroughs of Ealing and Haringey nearly half of all social housing lets went to foreign nationals.

However, there are huge gaps in the statistics collected. In some London Boroughs over one third of new tenants had no nationality recorded while, in others, only about half of new lets were included in the official CORE statistics^[3]. As a result, there are a number of boroughs in which less than half the new lets are known to have been allocated to British nationals.

There is a pattern to this. Boroughs with large immigrant populations tend to have the largest gaps in the information that they make available and to be the least co-operative in responding to requests for information.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch said “The present situation is a scandal. The records are in chaos. British people who have lived in the area for many years are given little or no priority. What is clear is that the proportion of new lets going to foreign nationals in London is far higher than has previously been admitted. We call for a full government enquiry to establish the facts. We also call for a new policy which would ensure that only those who are, or have become, British Citizens are considered for social housing. Foreign nationals would still get housing allowance but not social housing; there is no reason why they should be entitled to subsidised housing provided by British taxpayers while British citizens spend years in the queue”.

ENDS

The following quote may be attributed to Frank Field MP in connection with the Migrationwatch paper on social housing:

"For years we have been told that British people on the waiting list for social housing are getting a fair deal. Yet, when the situation in London is examined, we find that, in reality, nobody has any idea how many new lets are going to foreign nationals and how many to British citizens.

This scandal must stop. I have a bill before Parliament that will ensure that those citizens who have made most contribution to society, who have paid their taxes and whose children have not caused trouble, for example, will have first choice of any housing available. This would be a major change in our Welfare State whereby benefits have to be earned rather than automatically allocated on need.

The government should back my bill. It should also, urgently, undertake an enquiry so that they can present an accurate report to the Electorate on who gets the available social housing and when".

1 http://www.ippr.org/.../social-housing-allocation-and-immigrant-communities
2 http://www.communities.gov.uk/.../livetables Table 754
3 The Continuous Recording of Sales and Letting (CORE) is a national information source funded jointly by the Tenant Services Authority and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).