Migrants are not “taking all the council houses”.
There is a common misconception that asylum seekers and other migrants arrive in the UK and are immediately given housing run by councils and housing associations. The claim is that migrants are causing long housing waiting lists and preventing British citizens from accessing social homes.
The facts show a different story. Sky-high private rents and house prices, the loss of council homes to the right to buy and a lack of investment in social housing are all behind the chronic lack of social homes in the UK.
Recent migrants have no right to rent social housing. Once they are permanently settled here after five years residence or become a British Citizen, they can apply for social housing.
- There is no evidence that foreign born nationals receive preferential treatment when applying for social housing. (4)
- In 2024-2025, 89% of social housing went to UK citizens (2)
- ·Most migrants live in the private rental sector. (3)
So who houses Asylum Seekers?
- Local councils and housing associations have no duty to house asylum seekers.
- Council homes and housing association housing are not used for asylum seekers.
- The Home Office contracts out the business of housing asylum seekers to commercial companies. These are Mears Group, Serco and Clearsprings Ready Homes. These companies try to find accommodation in the private rented sector, usually flats or houses of multiple occupancy.
- Since the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the use of contingency accommodation (predominantly hotels). The government has pledged to phase out the use of hotels by 2029.
- Asylum seekers are not allowed to work so cannot fund their own accommodation. The Green Party says they should be able to work and support themselves.
- Some asylum seekers are self-sufficient or supported by family or friends and do not receive support with accommodation, although exact numbers are not published.
- A local authority cannot usually refuse to allow asylum seekers to be housed in their area. But it can negotiate about whether the accommodation is in a suitable area.
- A refugee is a successful asylum seeker. They are entitled to publicly funded homelessness assistance once they are granted asylum. This is necessary because they have been prevented from working while awaiting their decision and cannot fund their own accommodation. If they were allowed to work, they would not need this help.
Why the hotels?
Put bluntly, the Home Office takes too long to make decisions on asylum applications so there is a backlog and too many applicants need to be housed.
- Average processing times exceed 12 months with significant numbers of applicants waiting over one year for initial decisions. At the end of September 2025, 80,841 people were waiting for an initial decision on their asylum application. Over 17,000 of these people have been waiting for longer than a year (1).
- ·48% of appeals against the initial Home Office decision succeed, indicating that a substantial number of initial decisions are of poor quality and the appeal is justified. (1)
- As a result the government ends up funding accommodation for asylum seekers for months and years. The numbers mean the government has been forced to use large facilities such as hotels and former barracks. This is a failure of government to process applications in an efficient and timely fashion. It is not the fault of the asylum seekers.
Migrants and asylum seekers are not taking all the social housing. There are mutiple reasons for the lack of social homes and we should stop scapegoating immigrants.