The United Kingdom’s Conservative Party has announced plans to restrict access to social housing in England to British citizens and people with EU settled status if it returns to power, arguing that the policy would make more homes available for British families.

Under the proposal, foreign nationals seeking new social housing tenancies would no longer qualify, while some existing tenants who do not hold UK, Irish or EU citizenship could also lose their homes after a six-month transition period.

The party said the measure could free more than 228,000 social housing units and blamed rising immigration for increasing pressure on housing waiting lists.

Current rules allow some foreign nationals, including refugees, people with settled status and those granted humanitarian protection, to access social housing. Asylum seekers are generally excluded, except in limited circumstances.

The proposal would exempt individuals with EU settled status, but new EU citizens without that status would not be eligible for future social housing allocations.

The policy follows a similar proposal by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who earlier suggested foreign tenants should leave social housing within three months or face deportation if his party formed the government.

Labour dismissed the Conservative proposal as impractical, arguing that it mirrors Reform UK’s approach without addressing the underlying shortage of affordable housing. The party maintained that Britain’s housing crisis stems from years of inadequate housebuilding under previous Conservative governments.

Government figures cited by the BBC show that about 1.34 million households were on social housing waiting lists as of March 2025. The data also indicated that UK nationals accounted for the overwhelming majority of new social housing allocations during the 2024–2025 period, while refugees represented a small proportion of new tenants.

Defending the proposal, Conservative Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately said access to Britain’s welfare system should be earned through work, tax contributions and integration rather than treated as an automatic entitlement.

Labour’s Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, warned that the proposal could increase homelessness by affecting refugees and long-term residents who are not UK citizens.

Housing charity Shelter also criticised the plan, saying access to social housing is already subject to strict eligibility rules. The organisation argued that removing existing tenants would not solve the housing shortage, which it attributed to decades of insufficient investment in affordable homes.

Reform UK, however, said the Conservatives had adopted only part of its policy, arguing that exempting people with EU settled status would leave significant gaps in the proposed reforms.