10,000 council houses given to immigrants in a year

The Government figures reveal the pressures which immigration is putting on housing and public services.

Foreign nationals are legally entitled to social housing - including housing association properties - after spending more than four years in the UK or successfully claiming asylum.

Some EU migrants are also entitled to be given taxpayer-subsidised houses, which are in short supply nationwide.

Last year only 25,596 new social housing homes were built.

The figures, released in a written reply to Tory MP James Clappison, represent around 5 per cent of all lettings to new social housing tenants last year.

The average cost of social housing is £133,941 a home.

The Government contributes an average of £62,000 of taxpayers' cash with the rest coming from developers or social landlords.

Based on those figures the value of the homes given to foreign nationals was £1.3billion - including a £ 620million subsidy from the public purse.

Councils allocate accommodation on the basis of need, with homes more likely to go to families who are homeless or have young children.

Those who were given social housing include 267 people from new EU member states in eastern Europe.

The figures will reignite the debate over who receives council housing.

Earlier this year, Government minister Margaret Hodge said established British families should be given priority over economic-migrants.

She called for a rethink of social housing policy, to take account of length of residence, citizenship and national insurance contributions.

Social housing was limited and British families had a "legitimate sense of entitlement" to their own homes, she added.

Mrs Hodge was swiftly attacked by Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson for using the "language of the BNP".

The Communities and Local Government department said last night that foreign nationals were subject

to the same access rules for social housing as everyone else.

A spokesman said: "The vast majority of immigrants find housing in the private rented sector or with friends or relatives."

Earlier this week Gordon Brown, in his speech to the Labour conference in Bournemouth, recognised the urgent need for new properties and pledged billions for more social housing.

Researchers at the House of Commons Library estimate that since 1997, more than a third of housing built in the UK - almost 600,000 homes - has been needed because of immigration.

That is three times as many homes as were needed for immigrants under the last Conservative government.

The library, a team of independent researchers who carry out work for MPs, said an average of 19,000 immigrant households a year were established between 1992 and 1997.

The figure has since soared to 66,000 a year, helping to price many British first-time buyers out of the market.

The figures will increase pressure on the Government to confront the pressures on public services being caused by the unprecedented pace of immigration.

Home Office Minister Liam Byrne is to publish a first comprehensive official analysis of the impact on October 17.

He is likely to face criticism if the study, by the new Migration Impacts Forum, is considered to have "pulled its punches", or failed to identify the areas where housing, health, education and policing are struggling to cope.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: "The Government have been less than frank about the true impact of immigration on social housing, which is already in crisis.

"Allocation must, of course, be on the basis of need. But the Government must look again at how that need is defined.

"At present, it favours those who have large families."