Government scraps proposals for ‘British Homes for British workers’

The previous government also proposed councils having to undertake a local connection test to prioritise social housing allocations to households that have a close connection to the UK and their local area.

Reforms also included requiring all councils to undertake tests to determine who should qualify for social housing, including mandating a local connection test, income test and anti-social behaviour test.

In its response, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (as the DLUHC is now called) said the consultation responses had made it clear that the plans were “unnecessary, given there are already stringent national and local rules in place”.

It also said they were “costly, given implementation requirements and likely increases in homelessness” and would “potentially harm communities and individuals by increasing the public safety risk or risk of reoffending”.

The department said “the only real answer” to addressing the unmet demand for social housing was to increase the supply of good-quality homes and that “is exactly what this government will do” with plans to build 1.5 million homes over the course of this parliament.

UK connection test

The majority of respondents (66 per cent) did not agree with the introduction of this test, which would have only granted eligibility for social housing to non-UK nationals after 10 years of lawful residence in the UK, with some exceptions.

The consultation response showed feedback from key stakeholders highlighted “significant concerns” around its feasibility and the cost of implementation, due to the need to recruit additional staff, update IT systems and establish new data verification checks.

The government said eligibility for social housing was “already tightly controlled”.

It said that, in 2022-23, 90 per cent of social lets were allocated to UK nationals and the remaining 10 per cent were allocated to EEA, Swiss and Irish citizens (who would have remained eligible under the UK connection test) or migrants in severe housing need.

“The UK connection test would likely have cost tens of millions of pounds to implement, due to the need to recruit additional staff, update IT systems and establish new data checks to verify whether an individual had 10 years of lawful leave,” government said.

“Given eligibility criteria for social housing is already tightly defined, the government does not agree that this would be a justifiable use of taxpayer money.”

Before the general election, the Conservative Party promised to move ahead with the policies in its manifesto.

The social housing sector had been highly critical of the proposals. A 17-strong coalition of housing organisations published a letter to the government, voicing concern over the ideas shortly after rumours emerged of the idea.