Foreign nationals would lose their right to social housing in the UK under a Conservative government, in plans that have been condemned as “divisive”.
Under the proposals revealed on Friday, the Tories said around 230,000 homes would become available if they removed the right of foreign nationals to live in social housing.
The move would also see tenants who do not qualify for the housing to move out of their homes within six months.
Foreign nationals with settled status, refugee status or specific humanitarian protections currently qualify for social housing, while asylum seekers are not eligible apart from in exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases.
Many have condemned the plans, including housing charity Shelter and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Shelter’s chief executive, Sarah Elliott, said: “These divisive plans would brutally kick people out of their homes, including thousands of families and pensioners who have lived in them for decades.
“And let’s not forget that social tenants pay rent, which goes back to the public purse and into society.
“It is completely senseless to ruin people’s lives, drive up homelessness and put extreme pressure on councils. This policy does nothing to deliver new social homes, which is what we desperately need.”
An RCN spokesperson said: “The worst thing in the world would be to cause serious housing worry for a workforce that keeps our services running, posing serious risk to patient care.
“Those advocating for them need to offer reassurances – and quickly – or explain why it is just that some of our most brilliant nursing staff may face housing insecurity.”
Under the plans, any single person currently living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish or EU citizen would lose their social home. This includes those with or without children.
Anyone with EU settled status would not be evicted.
For future tenancies, UK nationals and those with EU settled status would be eligible, however, any new EU citizens without settled status would not be.
Couples, where neither of them is a UK or EU citizen and they do not have EU settled status, will lose their entitlement.
The Conservative 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.
“Labour has lost control of immigration and lost control of the welfare bill, and it is British families picking up the bill and sitting on waiting lists.
“The next Conservative government will make foreign nationals ineligible for social housing. Nearly 230,000 homes could go to British families.”
In 2024/25, 88.5% of main householders – the person in whose name the social home is rented – were UK or Irish nationals and 11.5% were non-UK/Irish nationals, according to the English Housing Survey.
There are an estimated 470,000 non-UK and non-Irish citizens living in social housing.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “This is an unserious, unworkable proposal, copied from Reform, that does nothing to tackle the housing crisis the Tories themselves created.”
