Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many foreign nationals have been granted social housing in the last year.

People are generally eligible for social housing if they have leave to remain in the UK and have recourse to public funds. The Home Office decides whether persons from abroad have leave to remain in the UK and whether they have recourse to public funds.

Only individuals that are eligible can join housing registers and be given a social housing tenancy. For those who are eligible, housing needs will be considered on an equal basis in accordance with the relevant local authority’s housing allocation scheme.

There were 33,000 new social lettings in England to households whose lead tenant was a non-UK national in 2023/24. This constitutes 13% of all new social lettings that year (262,000 lettings). The Department does not hold data on the nationality of individual members of households in social housing, but such households can contain UK nationals as well as non-UK national lead tenants.