7:40am Monday 6th September 2010
Government plans to move immigrants to the back of the council housing queue have been rejected by Merton Council, and described by a councillor as “pandering to prejudice”.
Councillor Andrew Judge, cabinet member for regeneration, claimed they would not help the borough’s social housing shortage, and said building more homes was the only way to tackle the problem.
But some residents said they would welcome new rules for the list – which currently includes 5,437 people – after the Government unveiled proposals to allow councils greater say in running lists and set criteria favouring people born in the area.
Government plans, announced on Monday, could allow authorities to use how long residents have lived in a particular area as an extra factor in making a housing decision.
Housing Minister Grant Shapps said the move would improve community cohesion.
He said: “It causes a great deal of concern and is very problematic for social cohesion when people find they aren’t provided with any preference when they are actually in the area they have lived in for a very long time.”
But Coun Judge said the announcement played on a fear of immigrants, and claimed the Conservatives “don’t believe in public housing at all”.
He said: “We will put up high-quality social housing in mixed developments whereever we can.”
He said the authority was not interested in making changes to the way its list was run.
Vincent Grech, chairman of Wimbledon’s High Path Residents’ Association, said recent immigrants should have to wait longer for council housing if people born in the borough could not find a place.
He said the housing shortage was a problem that left residents sleeping in front rooms because they could not afford to rent.
He said: “I get a lot of complaints from families where the children don’t seem to be able to get on the list.
“You get generations of one family living in the same flat.”
Geoffrey Bowring, chairman of the Merton Priory Homes Residents’ Forum, said he would welcome moves to give local authorities greater say in allocating housing but warned, “the first priority is fairness – there has to be fairness in all these situations”.
Not all immigrants are allowed to apply for the homes, but about 10 per cent of Britain’s council house occupants were born abroad.
The current list is needs based and gives preference to vulnerable people – including those who are homeless or living in overcrowded conditions.
Earlier this year ownership of all of the council homes were transferred to a new housing association, Merton Priory Homes, but the authority has kept control of applications for subsidised housing.
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