Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 23rd February 2026 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett]

11: Clause 4, page 3, line 4, leave out “(3) or (4)” and insert “(2A), (3) or (4).
(2A) A person is within this subsection if—(a) they have been granted protection status in accordance with rules made under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971,(b) they have been granted limited leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom by virtue of Appendix Hong Kong British National (Overseas) of rules made under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971, or(c) they have, as part of a safe and legal humanitarian immigration route, leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom in accordance with rules made under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971 or leave on a discretionary basis outside of rules.”Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment would add people who have been recognised as in need of international protection, who have arrived as a Hong Kong British National, or have arrived on a safe and legal humanitarian programme to the priority group.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, Amendment 11 would add to the list of priority groups people who have been recognised as in need of international protection, who have arrived as a Hong Kong British national or who have arrived on a safe and legal humanitarian route. I will speak simply to this amendment, but I have some sympathy for the amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada.

I apologise for popping up at this late stage of the Bill’s passage. This issue was brought to my attention by the Refugee Council, which recently spotted that, as it stands, the Bill will exclude those recognised as refugees from prioritisation for medical training posts. This will potentially make it harder for people with medical backgrounds who have been displaced and given protection in the UK to contribute fully to the NHS. This resonates with me because my father, as a young man with a medical qualification, came to the UK in the 1930s as an early refugee from Nazi Germany. He was able to requalify at Glasgow University and, after the war, eventually went on to have a long career as a medical officer in Manchester in what was then the DHSS. As such, he contributed to British society in a way that would now be difficult for medically qualified refugees.

Programmes such as the Refugee Council’s Building Bridges programme support qualified refugee doctors and other health professionals to utilise their skills and experience in the UK. These programmes are based on close collaboration between charities and the NHS. This is beneficial for the refugees themselves, as well as for the UK. That support can include helping refugees to pass the necessary language requirements and get professional registration in the UK. Some refugees will also progress to accessing medical training posts. This has included foundation programmes specifically designed to support refugee doctors into the NHS workforce.

During Second Reading in the other place, the Secretary of State said that the UK

“must break our over-reliance on international recruitment”.—[Official Report, Commons, 27/1/26; col. 803.]

This amendment does not run counter to that aim. Refugees have not come to the UK because they have been recruited. First and foremost, they have sought protection and have been given it. My amendment would simply ensure that those refugees who are also doctors would be able to put their medical backgrounds to good use and continue to develop their expertise for the benefit of the wider community, as well as for themselves.

At the same time as the Bill is progressing through Parliament, the Government are proposing significant changes to settlement for refugees as part of the earned settlement plans. Ministers have said that these changes are supposed to incentivise integration and ensure that settlement is earned. Ensuring that refugee doctors are not placed at a disadvantage because of this Bill would help the Government meet those aims.

At Second Reading, my noble friend the Minister explained:

“Internationally trained doctors with significant NHS experience will continue to be prioritised for specialty training, recognising the service that they have given. This year, immigration status will be used as a practical proxy for NHS experience in order to allow prioritisation to begin swiftly. For following years, we have taken powers in regulations to enable us to refine this approach in consultation with key partners. I have been asked by noble Lords what this means for those with refugee status. This status is not a stand-alone priority group, although refugees will be prioritised for specialty training in 2026 if they fall within another priority category, such as holding indefinite leave to remain or having completed the foundation programme. Refugees who do not fall within a prioritised group may still apply for specialty training posts and the Bill will not change their eligibility to apply for locally employed doctors’ roles”.—[Official Report, 4/2/26; col. 1648.]


The noble Lord, Lord Patel, responded positively with particular reference to Ukrainian refugees. I am not sure that my noble friend’s response was quite as reassuring as he perhaps thought, especially as Ukrainians who have arrived on the Ukrainian scheme will not be in any of the priority groups. If I understand the proposals correctly—this relates to the previous amendment—indefinite leave to remain is being used for places on specialty programmes in 2026 as a quick proxy for recognising doctors who have been trained abroad but who have been employed within the NHS for some time. It is not such a useful proxy for anyone who, like those on the Ukrainian schemes, have no route to settlement or who, under the proposed earned settlement changes, could have to wait 10 years, or even longer, to qualify for indefinite leave to remain.

My amendment also addresses the impact of the Bill on doctors who have come to the UK as part of the Hong Kong BNO visa scheme. As with other refugee doctors, they have sought safety in the UK. Indeed, the scheme is frequently described by the Government as a safe and legal route. The case for their inclusion has been put to me eloquently in an email from an anaesthetic registrar who is a BNO visa holder and is currently working in the NHS. Like many colleagues in a similar position, he migrated to the UK for political reasons before completing his training and now regards the UK as his permanent home, where he wishes to dedicate his career to the NHS. They argue that

“deprioritisation to the point of exclusion would leave us without any pathway to complete training, despite our qualifications and NHS contributions, effectively ending specialist careers for a group formally invited to settle here”.

They also point out that BNO doctors in the NHS form a small, finite cohort. Their main argument is that,

“unlike many other International Medical Graduates who can return home to complete training, those of us on the BNO scheme face unique barriers. Due to the political situation in Hong Kong, returning is not realistic nor possible for many of us. The UK is now our only place to practise medicine and pursue specialist training”.

Although their situation is not quite the same, the argument also applies to other displaced persons covered by this amendment.

At a time when the Government are making it much more difficult to achieve refugee status, should they not at the very least ensure that those who are so recognised and who are medically qualified are able to requalify and use their medical expertise to the benefit of our society? I hope my noble friend will be able to accept this amendment, but I suspect she will not. At the very least, I ask her to give a commitment to further consultation with a view to giving serious consideration to including the groups specified in the amendment, even if only in modified form, in the regulations to which she referred at Second Reading and which were mentioned earlier today. I beg to move.

[Baroness Gerada (CB)]

My Lords, I speak to Amendments 12, 13 and 15 in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn. I repeat my conflicts of interest: I am of Maltese heritage, I am a doctor and I am co-chair of the APPG. My amendments are narrow, they are practical and they respond directly to the concerns raised by the Minister in Committee. I respect the Minister and am grateful for the time that she has given me, for her letter and for engaging seriously with this issue.

I fully accept that we must find a solution to the difficulties faced by UK medical graduates, as so eloquently pointed out by the noble Lord, Lord Patel. In doing so, however, we must ensure that we do not unfairly disadvantage a small, specific group of students, do not strain valued relationships with an EU member state and Commonwealth partner or inadvertently undermine a long-standing transnational higher education commitment. That is the purpose of my amendments.

This is not about opening floodgates, nor is it about creating a new route for offshore medical schools. I am speaking here about just two long-established UK universities with overseas campuses: Queen Mary University of London in Malta and Newcastle University in Malaysia. They are the only two that, upon Royal Assent, will meet the criteria for delivering UK primary medical qualifications overseas—the same curriculum, the same examinations, the same degree and, until now, the same eligibility for the UK foundation programme. Historically, there was a third, City St George’s, which is now teaching its final cohort of seven students in Cyprus; that arrangement is closing. In reality, therefore, we are speaking about two mature, well-governed partnerships with capped, predictable numbers of no more than 190 students per year.

Let me address Malta, which I obviously know best. Since 2009, Queen Mary has operated a British medical school in Malta on the understanding that its graduates would be treated in the same way as its London cohort for entry into the UK foundation programme. That reassurance was reaffirmed as recently as 2024. Each year, about 90 students enrol at the university. Many of them are UK nationals, often with a clear intention of serving in the NHS. They are students such as Michael, who comes from Essex; he is a final-year medical student who worked as a nurse during the pandemic before deciding to train as a doctor at QMUL Malta. He is not a rich kid but someone who has dedicated his life to working in the NHS, and has worked, saved and borrowed money to achieve his passion of becoming a doctor. What can he hope for now? If we imply that a UK degree somehow becomes less UK because a lecture theatre is in Malta rather than Whitechapel, we send an unfortunate signal not only to those students but to a close education and historic partner.

The Minister has quite properly raised concerns about NHS exposure and it is true that most clinical placements take place in Malta, but almost all the students undertake NHS attachments. The health challenges they face are strikingly similar to ours—much more so, I would attest, than the health challenges in Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. Non-communicable diseases dominate: diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. There is a growing burden of mental illness, especially among children and young people. Its population is ageing and its society is increasingly diverse. The weather may be warmer, but the medicine is not fundamentally different.

This is not merely an assertion. QMUL now has four completed cohorts—147 graduates who have transitioned safely into the NHS and are performing exceptionally well. Why would they not? More than half of them are UK nationals. All are fluent in English, and all have been trained to practise in the NHS. These doctors or students seek no advantage. They only ask not to be disadvantaged because the campus of the UK university is overseas. The numerical impact on domestic graduates would be negligible. The Government’s target competition ratio of two applicants per foundation place would still be met.

--- Later in debate ---

For all these reasons, as I have said, the Government cannot support Amendment 12A and I ask the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, to withdraw Amendment 11.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, and the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, for their support for Amendment 11. I am also grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Howe—I thought his response was very fair.

There was clearly very strong support for the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, who made a very good case for why what she was asking for was very limited, but clearly it is not something that the Government feel able to support.

I take some comfort from what my noble friend said with regard to future engagement, particularly with regard to refugees and what she said at the very end in response to the noble Earl, Lord Howe. I emphasise that I really hope that this process of engagement will include the groups working with refugee doctors so perhaps there may be hope that—if not this year, then in future years—their needs may be recognised, and similarly that the case made today by the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, will be taken into account when this engagement process starts.

Perhaps my noble friend could write to us and give us more of an idea about what this engagement process will involve, when it will take place, who will be engaged and so forth. But with that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 11 withdrawn.

National Carers Strategy

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I understand the point that the noble Baroness is making. Certainly we recognise that overpayments have caused people great anxiety. That is why it is important to review the circumstances independently, so we can find out exactly what went wrong and make things right, so it does not happen again. The main message I would give is to urge anyone in receipt of carer’s allowance to inform the DWP of any change in their circumstances in respect of the earnings limit, so that overpayments can be avoided. But we are seeking to work constructively to ensure that this is not an ongoing problem.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, a key element of any carer’s strategy, or non-strategy, must be to make it easier for carers to combine caring with paid work. As well as long-overdue reform of carer’s allowance, there is wide agreement that carer’s leave needs to be paid if it is to be effective. Will the Government therefore consider introducing it, at least in principle, as part of the Employment Rights Bill, rather than leaving it to a review?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The Government are committed to reviewing the implementation of carer’s leave—and also examining the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave. As my noble friend said, the Employment Rights Bill includes provisions that will support all employees to support a better work/life balance by making flexible working the default, unless it is not reasonably feasible. That gives us an opportunity to make a particular difference for those combining work with unpaid care. Certainly, we are looking at the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave, and I look forward to updating your Lordships’ House.

Black and Minority Ethnic Babies: Mortality Rates

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I have specifically investigated infant mortality rates. If you look at it, you see the increase is in pre-24-week term cases. Post 24 weeks, the number of cases has remained stable, the data has shown. I have been trying to drill down to understand why it happens within less than 24 weeks. Clearly, more work needs to be done. We are also changing the way this is being measured. We are looking for more indications of whether there are early signs of life, and if there are no early signs of life, that is not recorded as a death. Now there is a lot more investigation to understand those early signs of life, so the change in measurement could be increasing the numbers. I am happy to go into more detail on that.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, further to the question from my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti, the recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on destitution found that minority ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by destitution. What steps are the Government taking directly to reduce destitution among this group?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Again, noble Lords will know that housing, to my mind, is key to so much of that, and the whole building programmes and the million extra houses are a key part of that. If you look into health across the board, you see that the homeless, for instance, use and need A&E services more than ever. Clearly, it is a root cause we need to tackle.

Vaccinations

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

This year, what the officials call the “delivery model” is likely to be broadly similar to previous rollouts, with a similar mix of vaccination sites—mass vaccination centres, GP surgeries, pharmacies, hospital hubs, pop-ups et cetera—as well as NHS services. NHS England and NHS Improvement try to emphasise co-administration of Covid-19 vaccines with flu vaccines and other vaccines. At the same time, NHS England, NHS Improvement and MHRA are looking at current guidance to see how we can ensure that we encourage this more.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, my understanding is that uptake of the Covid vaccine has been much lower among some of the most marginalised communities, reflecting that hesitancy to which the Minister referred. In part, it would appear that this is because of a lack of trust in state institutions. I very much welcome what he said about the deployment of other agencies, but what are the Government doing to build that trust for the future?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

Indeed, this is a really important point: the essential issue must be trust. As politicians in Westminster or officials in Whitehall, we must all have enough humility to recognise that we may not be able to cut through that. We have been looking at working with a number of different people in those communities and working out what the best message and channels will be. For example, we have spoken to faith leaders in some places. Even though some people may not be of a certain faith—they may be agonistic or atheist—they still respect faith leaders. In other places, we are looking at where people who are vaccine-hesitant go, and whether we can get the message—or even the vaccines—across to them.

Public Health: Night-time Working

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Thursday 6th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The Government commissioned a review of sleep and health from the former Public Health England for 2020-21. That reported just before Christmas and is now being considered by Ministers and other officials. We are hoping that the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will publish the findings in 2022. The review looked at a number of different things, including trends over time, optimal levels of sleep, links between mental and physical health, the economic impact and factors that hinder interventions to promote sleep. As the noble Lord rightly says, there is research out there about how workers can experience gastrointestinal disturbance and sleeping disorders and the possible association with breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. All that will come out in the review, I hope.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, does not the evidence about the poor conditions experienced by night workers underline the need for stronger employment rights for those in the so-called gig economy, in which many night workers work? When, therefore, will the Government finally publish their long-promised employment Bill?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Baroness makes an important point. Indeed, the article the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, sent me talked about the impact on delivery drivers of not being allowed to rest or take shelter in restaurants and takeaways—being sent away and not having access to bathrooms and other facilities. The Government are looking at getting the balance right on this, in terms of flexibility, because some people value zero-hours contracts as long as they are not exclusive and they can work around them. We are looking at the various categories of workers. Because this is employment, I have been trying to get more answers; I apologise that I do not have all of them, but I will write to the noble Baroness.

Covid-19: Poverty

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I can certainly speak for the inequalities we have in health. The right reverend Prelate is entirely right—Covid has been a real reminder of the impact of deprivation and inequality on the population. Those who are disabled are two-and-a-half times more likely to have had some form of life issue with Covid. In terms of deprivation, mortality in the most-deprived neighbourhoods was more than double the rate than in less-deprived neighbourhoods. Those facts are chilling. They are a wake-up call, and we will be working through our levelling-up agenda.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, as the latest Marmot review made clear, damaging and heartbreaking levels of inequality and poverty, especially child and family poverty, weakened our resilience in the face of Covid. Apart from getting people into paid work, which increasingly is failing to protect from poverty, what is the Government’s anti-poverty strategy?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I can speak for the health dimension. I should emphasise the work of the office for health promotion. Under the Chief Medical Officer, the OHP will deliver proactive, predictive and personalised preventive strategies. We believe that there is a huge opportunity off the back of Covid to really change the health inequalities of the country, and that is what the OHP will be devoted to doing.

Covid-19: Self-isolation Payment Scheme

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, the reality of the epidemic is that it targets some communities in specific areas with laser-like focus. The feedback from some of those communities, local authorities and community leaders is that support is needed in some areas where there has been a local lockdown. We have responded to those suggestions and put this financial support in place for specific communities in specific areas. In that, we are responding to local suggestions.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, can the Minister explain the evidence base for the decision that £13 a day would be sufficient to persuade low-paid workers to forgo their earnings and self-isolate?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I am not sure that I heard all the question. Can I just explain that those who are isolated for 10 days will receive £130? Other eligible members of their household who have been self-isolating will also be entitled to a payment. Eligible non-household contacts instructed to stay at home and to self-isolate will also be entitled to a payment of up to £182.

Adult Social Care

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I know that the noble Lord is very keen on an independent commission, and he knows my views on that. I do not think we need an independent commission to tell us that social care and health care must be more joined up and integrated; we all know that. We can do that through a major reorganisation from the centre—but we know what big reorganisations do to the health service: they stymie it for years—or we can work locally in the STP and local authority areas to try to drive this at local level, which I think is the right way forward.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, an independent commission on care reported recently. It called for a national care service and for adequate investment in the social infrastructure of care now, not at the end of the Parliament, to give care equal status with the NHS and to prevent us going over the tipping point. The tipping point is here; we cannot wait until the end of the Parliament. Will the Minister and his colleagues take those recommendations seriously and urgently?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

There is no question but that we all recognise the enormous pressures on social care. I cannot comment on what may or may not be in the autumn Statement, but I entirely recognise the pressures to which the noble Baroness draws our attention. As I said, the Government did not have resources available to put money into the NHS and social care at the same time at the beginning of this Parliament because we have to live in the real world, which is very financially constrained. As I said, an extra £1.5 billion is going into the better care fund and an extra £2 billion will be raised by the local authority precept by the end of this Parliament.

Dental Health: Children

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, there is no question but that a low-sugar, healthy diet is good for people’s teeth. The noble Baroness will have to wait until we produce the children’s obesity strategy later in the summer, in which we will reveal the full strategy.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, I am glad that the Minister focused on the question of social deprivation. What will the government strategy do about that?

Children and Families Bill

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Storey]

My Lords, obviously we should be supporting any family in the situation described by the noble Baronesses, Lady Jones and Lady Meacher. The noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, rightly pointed to the support that can be received from the discretionary housing subsidy. What I do not understand is why, for example, in my local council in Liverpool, last year £337,000 of government discretionary housing payments were left unspent and returned. The sad thing is that, in every year since 2001-02, a large sum of money has been returned.

I do not understand why the Local Government Association is telling the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, that demand is outstripping provision when currently, after six months, Labour councils have spent only 29% of the allowance. In 2012-13, in England as a whole 37% of discretionary housing subsidy was left unspent. Should we not encourage those councils to use that money to do the same things that both noble Baronesses have suggested? If there is money available, it must be used for that. It is a disgrace, when children are in difficult situations—whether they need support because of physical handicap or whether they are in appalling conditions and need that support—to leave 37% of that money unspent across the whole of England.

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, as of August 2013, there were more than 235,000 children—nearly a quarter of a million children—living in households whose benefits have been cut because of the bedroom tax. We do not know how many children have had to move, disrupting their schooling—a point that has already been made—their friendships and the social networks which enable their parents to get by with childcare and other things. When I asked the Minister earlier today about the implications of this for the Government’s child poverty strategy, I did not get a direct answer. Inevitably, these families are being pushed further into poverty; there are no two ways about it.

There have been a number of reports in newspapers about the struggles that many families face trying to get by. I will not read all of them but simply read from the initial comments from the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, who put the case very well. She said:

“The right to housing is not about a roof anywhere, at any cost, without any social ties. It is not about reshuffling people according to a snapshot of the number of bedrooms at a given night. It is about enabling environments for people to maintain their family and community bonds, their local schools, work places and health services allowing them to exercise all other rights, like education, work, food or health”.

She continued:

“Of the many testimonies I have heard, let me say that I have been deeply touched by persons with physical and mental disabilities who have felt targeted instead of protected; of the grandmothers who are carers of their children and grandchildren but are now feeling they are forced to move away from their life-long homes due to a spare bedroom or to run the risk of facing arrears; of the single parents who will not have space for their children when they come to visit; of the many people who are increasingly having to choose between food and paying the penalty. Those who are impacted by this policy were not necessarily the most vulnerable a few months ago, but they were on the margins, facing fragility and housing stress, with little extra income to respond to this situation and already barely coping with their expenses”.

The amendment will not solve the problem, but it will go some way to alleviate the problems that those families face. Families are really struggling as a result of this measure, and I hope that we can support the amendment to do something for some of those very vulnerable children.

[Lord Martin of Springburn (CB)]

My Lords, briefly, I agree with everything that has been said. There is often criticism in my native city of Glasgow that the housing estates are too big, but those of us who know those housing estates know that there are excellent communities within them. In fact, those of us who have lived in big cities think of them not as a big city but as a collection of villages and communities. Many of the housing estates that I know of and are excellent were built just after the war, when the soldiers came home from the forces. The families were regarded as big. I came from a family of five living in a tenement, and in those days that was a small family—there were families of eight or nine.

Noble Lords are right to say that there can be a big impact on children if they have to move away from the communities that they enjoy. Most of us have happy memories of the childhood communities we lived in and the support of the extended families who were there. We could end up taking young children out of their school, as has already been stated, and away from their community facilities into a strange area.

I go back to where I was raised in the city of Glasgow. If a family is in an underoccupied house, that can mean that the house has a garden and a back and front door, which is regarded as significant for a family. To go to the proper size of house that the Government suggest could mean that they are forced to take a tenement flat. It has a big impact on a young person to go from a house with a garden to a tenement flat.

When I have spoken to the Minister, he has been very courteous to me and told me that he will give me a reply on this matter, but he has always mentioned the waiting lists and how long they are. The implication is that, if you have a long waiting list, you will fill the vacant accommodation. That is not necessarily the case. Anyone who has been a constituency MP or a councillor will know that people will come to you to say, “I’ve been on the waiting list for 10 or 12 years”, but when you say, “I can get you a house tomorrow”, they say, “Oh, but I’m not taking a house in this area or that area; I want this particular area”. Those who are on the waiting list exercise a great element of choice.

I personally have no housing problem either in London or in Glasgow, but I dare say that, legally, there would be nothing to stop me going to the local housing association in Westminster and saying, “I want to put my name on the waiting list”. By the same token, I could do that in Glasgow. Being on a waiting list does not mean that the person on the list is in need. I do not think that the waiting list is necessarily the best measure to use when saying that we can solve the problems caused by people being forced out of their so-called underoccupied houses.