Kemi Badenoch’s plan gives foreign nationals six months to move out. Reform UK says its own version, with three months and deportation, goes further.
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to evict almost 230,000 foreign national households from social housing if the Conservatives win the next election. Tenants without qualifying status would be given six months to move out.
Under the plans, reported by BBC News, foreign nationals from both EU and non-EU countries would be banned from signing new social housing tenancies. UK nationals and people with EU settled status would keep their eligibility. New arrivals from EU countries would not qualify.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: ‘Making Britain your home should be earned by working, paying tax and integrating. It should not come with a free ride on the benefits system. Britain cannot be a cash machine for the world.’
Most new arrivals cannot get social housing now
The announcement leaves out a key fact. Under existing rules, most non-UK nationals without indefinite leave to remain are already ineligible for social housing, according to the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
Census figures from 2021 show around 15% of social housing residents in England and Wales were born abroad. Only 7% held non-UK passports.
A Labour spokesman said the policy would mainly affect refugees and long-term residents who are not citizens, including some NHS staff, the Mirror reported. He called it an ‘unserious, unworkable proposal, copied from Reform’ and said it would put more families at risk of homelessness while driving up spending on temporary accommodation.
A queue that would take 119 years to clear
The social housing waiting list in England stood at 1.33 million households in March 2024, the highest since 2014. Analysis by Shelter found the backlog would take around 119 years to clear at the current building rate, The Guardian reported. Just 12,198 new social homes were delivered in the previous year. Shelter is a registered charity funded mainly by public donations and corporate partnerships, with some government grants for its advice services.
Reform got there first, and says the Tories are too soft
Reform UK announced a near-identical policy in June, The Guardian reported. Nigel Farage’s version goes further. It would apply retrospectively, abolish indefinite leave to remain, and give tenants three months to leave. Those who refused would lose their right to remain and could face deportation, according to BBC News.
Reform UK will ensure British social housing is strictly for British citizens — Zia Yusuf
Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf accused the Tories of trying to copy the policy while leaving EU citizens untouched. ‘Reform UK will ensure British social housing is strictly for British citizens’, he said.
Violence in Thetford and protests in Glasgow
The announcement came during a week of disorder over migrant housing. Crowds attacked homes believed to house asylum seekers in Thetford, Norfolk, on the night of 5 August 2026, The Independent reported. A female police officer was bitten badly enough to need hospital treatment. A male officer was hit by a rock. Police made multiple arrests for public order offences, harassment, and possession of an offensive weapon, and the disorder ran into a third night. Asylum seekers were evacuated from some properties.
In Glasgow, protesters gathered outside housing associations in July over claims asylum seekers were being given priority for social homes. Some associations closed their offices over safety concerns, Scottish Housing News reported.
The policy would need new legislation, status checks on existing tenants, and a system for appeals before any evictions could begin.
