28 Aug 2026
What do Reform and Conservative immigration policies mean in reality?
What are the Reform and Conservative policies on immigration?
Reform UK and the Conservatives have recently proposed policies outlining tighter restrictions for housing eligibility based on nationality status. In this article we outline what they’re proposing, what the reality is, and what the implications of such policies might have on the wider housing sector and crisis across the UK.
First up, we explore what each party have proposed:
Reform UK
Nigel Farage has said, “I will evict foreign nationals from council housing.” This headline in the Daily Telegraph heralded an attack on all non-UK nationals living in social housing. A Reform government would give these tenants three months’ notice to move out or to be deported.
A few days earlier, the Daily Express headlined Reform’s plan to remove welfare rights from foreign nationals after a three-month notice period, with the party estimating savings of “up to £10 billion a year on Universal Credit alone.”
Conservatives
The Conservatives have said they would end the provision of social housing for foreign nationals in England if they win power at the next election. Their restrictions would depend on both lead members of a household being foreign nationals, and would not include EU citizens with settled status in the UK. Under the Tory proposals, ineligible tenants would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.
The party said ending new tenancies for all foreign nationals, as well as current tenancies for couples where neither person is a UK, Irish or EU citizen, would free up an estimated 228,144 homes for British families.
Will the tighter policies for immigration housing actually work?
In short, no. Even if they could be carried out, the proposals would free up less than 1% of social housing for new lettings.
The reality is that access to social housing is already tightly regulated. People subject to immigration control are generally ineligible for social housing. Of all migrants that come to the UK 80% arrive on work or study visas that have "no recourse to public funds", meaning they can’t access housing assistance or welfare support. Asylum seekers (who make up just 4% of migrants) are also unable to access social housing while their claims are being determined.
This means that even with the proposed policies by Reform UK and Conservatives there would only be a few thousand households moved on and only a small number removed from the waiting list, which when you have a waitlist of over 1.3 million households across England means this will do little to help tackle the housing crisis.
So, what’s actually causing the housing crisis?
Housing pressures are fundamentally the result of a shortage of homes, particularly social and affordable housing, rather than the nationality of the people applying for them. CIH and other housing organisations have consistently highlighted the gap between housing supply and need as the defining challenge facing the sector.
When there are too few homes available, competition for those homes intensifies. Waiting lists grow. Homelessness rises. Temporary accommodation costs spiral. Communities become frustrated. It is understandable that people want answers.
What could these policies mean for the housing sector?
If the housing sector were forced to implement these policies and evict the households who are impacted by the policy, the costs to housing providers to do this could be as much as £5,000 per case, if possession proceedings were needed. This means that for each home ‘freed up’ for the waitlist, the funding available for managing the landlord’s homes, including repairs, would be reduced.
It would also mean rapid turnover of tenancies and loss of rent before new households could be brought in as tenants.
It would mean every household evicted having to find other accommodation, and very likely becoming homeless or ending up on the streets in the meantime. The private market would be impacted severely, and rents would rise. This would mean greater affordability problems for tenants in the private sector, whatever their nationality.
If non-UK nationals were still eligible for benefits, under the Conservative’s plans, the government’s benefits bill would increase quickly because eligible tenants would have higher rents than those they paid in their social tenancies; for example for a two bedroom property in London the difference between a local authority tenancy and private rented one is £294 per week (2024/25) which would add around £15,000 per year to the welfare bill for each tenant affected.
How do these policies affect other human rights?
Clearly either the Reform or Conservative plans would have an enormously disruptive effect on the households affected, many of whom are likely to have lived here for years. This would include older people, lone parents, disabled people and, of course, children, whose lives would be severely disrupted. Vulnerable households may be eligible for help from local councils under the Care Act or Children Act legislation, which is at higher cost to councils than providing social tenancies. If evictions took place on a big scale, they would find it very difficult to cope with demand.
Under the Reform plans in particular, former tenants without jobs would be destitute as they would be ineligible for benefits. They would face deportation to countries to which, perhaps, they had little connection and they would lose family and other connections here. This would affect, in particular, older people or others who depend on support networks locally.
What are the implications across the devolved nations?
With the UK government pushing for more devolution to individual nations and regions, the role of the local councillor could become more involved in housing policy and allocation. With the rise of Reform UK in the 2026 English local, Welsh and Scottish elections we may begin to see these types of policies playing a stronger part in local housing allocation policy and development, which could lead to more division in communities.
Where can I find out more about immigration policy in housing?
You can explore CIH’s Housing Rights website which has a range of resources and advice. You can also find information around housing policy and how CIH works with government on this website, in our Knowledge Hub and in our other resources.
If you want to know more about dispelling the myths of immigrant’s rights to housing read our blog.
