Nigel Farage has revealed striking statistics about social housing occupancy in the UK, claiming they “destroy all the arguments made for immigration.”
Speaking on GB News, the former Brexit Party leader highlighted that 17 per cent of foreign-born people currently live in social housing, compared to 16 per cent of UK-born residents.
“We’re told it’s great, it helps us and it makes the country richer,” Nigel said, challenging the economic benefits of immigration.
The figures are even more stark for certain migrant groups, Nigel noted, with 30 per cent of low-skilled migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa living in social housing.
“This is astonishing,” he said on GB News.
He suggested these statistics were causing tensions among the British public.
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“It seems pretty clear to me from just something like this that it isn’t making us richer and it’s making a lot of British families feel very resentful indeed,” he added.
The controversy comes as Westminster City Council faced backlash over a social housing video featuring announcements in multiple languages.
The Labour-led council shared information about its new housing allocation scheme in English, Arabic, Bengali, Spanish and French.
The video was later removed following social media criticism.
The scheme, planned for February next year, aims to “make allocating social housing more transparent and prioritise those facing multiple challenges,” according to the council.
In Westminster, social housing tenants pay £677 monthly for properties that typically cost £3,200 to rent.
Neil Garratt, leader of the Conservatives at the London Assembly, criticised the council’s approach.
“People will be flabbergasted that huge taxpayer housing subsidies are actively promoted to people who have arrived here without even learning English,” he told GB News.
William Yarwood from the TaxPayers’ Alliance added: “Thousands of hardworking young people are struggling to afford homes in London, often crammed into rooms no bigger than a shoebox, while migrants who can’t even speak English are being handed prime real estate.”
A Westminster City Council spokesman defended their approach to GB News.
“The council complies with the national criteria for allocating council homes to our local residents prioritising those with the greatest need,” they said.
The council maintained that translations were necessary to ensure accessibility.
“We provide translations into commonly spoken languages to ensure anyone entitled to apply for social housing is able to understand and follow the process,” the spokesman added.
