Homes warning on migrant amnesty

The government says it is not planning an amnesty

It could take 20 or 30 years to build enough social housing for illegal immigrants in Britain if they received an amnesty, a pressure group says.

The government has estimated the UK has up to 570,000 illegal immigrants.

MigrationWatch UK says granting them all an amnesty would put too much pressure on council housing.

But ministers say they have no plans for an amnesty, and supporters of the idea say it is misleading to blame immigrants for UK housing problems.

Fairness fear

The MigrationWatch report says the number of asylum seekers granted permission to stay in the UK in recent years has exceeded the number of new social houses built in the same period by nearly 50,000.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the group, said: "The fair allocation of social housing is extremely difficult to achieve at the best of times.

"When you add in the unprecedented rise in asylum seekers granted permission to stay here in the last few years and then consider an amnesty against a background of low levels of construction, there is a real risk of harming social cohesion."

Sir Andrew said applicants who are granted asylum or exceptional leave to remain in the UK become eligible for social housing.

They did not get automatic access to social housing but it was likely the circumstances of people involved, particularly those with families, meant they would get high priority, he said.

Other pressures

The Institute for Public Policy Research, which has supported the idea of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, said the case for building more social housing had nothing to do with legalising illegal immigrants.

Jim Bennett, IPPR's head of social policy, said the government would receive an extra £1bn a year in taxes if there was an amnesty - part of which would be well spent on social housing.

"There are already around 1.5 million people on council housing waiting lists in England alone; so any former-illegal workers would be joining the back of a very long queue," he said.

"But at the moment work permit holders do not have access to housing from local authorities and an amnesty would not change that."

Mr Bennett said social housing was failing to keep up with all kinds of pressures - for example the number of single households has increased from 3m in 1971 to 6.4m now.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne recently refused to rule out the idea of an amnesty and said he had asked for more information from his officials.

But in a statement, he said: "The government has no plans for an amnesty and remains committed to removing those people who are living and working in the UK illegally.

Contribute

"But it welcomes legal migrants who bring considerable benefit to the UK - whether contributing to our wealth, our culture or our diversity.

"The intention of the government's policies is not to increase or reduce the number of people coming to the UK.

"Rather, its aim is to ensure that those who can contribute most to the UK are selected for entry and that the country takes in only as many people as our economy needs at any one time."

Local councils have had no responsibility in housing asylum seekers, who are instead housed through a separate, centralised national system, which mostly signs contracts with private landlords.