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The Government's “local homes for local people” plan came under fire today amid claims that it would fall foul of Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill.
Less than 24 hours after the proposal was announced by Gordon Brown, the Tories said it was “pure spin” while Labour MPs expressed fears that other budgets would be raided to pay for the £1.5 billion programme.
The exact source of the cuts was unclear, with an estimated £690 million coming from the Communities budget.
Some Labour MPs are furious at what they see as an attempt to ape the BNP over the “myth” that foreign migrants jump the housing queue.
Housing minister John Healey defended the policy as he announced moves to allow town halls to invest the proceeds of council house sales in new homes. Sources close to Mr Healey denied there was a “sons and daughters” policy to give white residents more of a chance of getting a home.
But the Tories said the proposal could be made illegal by the Equalities Bill as it gives local people preference over those who were not local yet had similar economic income.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps also said the “new” policy was already in place as current guidance allows town halls to give weight to an applicant's “local connection”.
“Under existing legislation and Harman's new equality law, local people will not have priority for local homes,” he said.
Labour MP Austin Mitchell, who chairs the all-party group on council housing, lashed out at reports that some of the £690 million will be taken from the Decent Homes Initiative that refurbishes council homes. Mr Mitchell said: “We are cutting off our nose to spite our face.”
A DCLG spokesman denied any rift with No 10 but said it was not ready to announce funding sources.
Reader views (17)
Equality and Human Rights Commission. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue a real treat? IF the government are calling this gaggle of parasites the Equality and Human Rights Commission don't you just know that this so-called Commission has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH EQUALITY OR HUMAN RIGHTS?
Oddly enough, if Gormless Brown intends to provide LOCAL PEEPS with council housing then he is BREAKING HIS OWN EQUALITY LAWS.
Sounds about right for Gormless Brown.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK
Before a penny is spent on building, it's worth finding out how many people are occupying subsidised housing whose names are not on the rent book. My guess is something similar to the estimated 700,000 illegal immigrants. Sort these out, then see what the problem really looks like.And don't forget the similar number of empty properties, and the similar number of second homes.
Small tweaks of the tax system, and enforcement of existing laws, would save our remaining greenspace.
- Mdj E10, london uk
Where are all these new houses going to be built? Not in nice well-mannered, middle class parts of London, as in the construction boom of past decades. No, the new housing will be put up rapidly in areas where there are no shops, no schools, and very little in the way of public transport.
- Mark, Venice, Italy
Immigrants its time to pack up you are going home , we need the country for our own families
- Ketlan Osswoski, Morecambe
EVERY PROBLEM FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO HOUSING TO TRANSORT AND NHS COMES DOWN TO ONE THING, TOO MANY PEOPLE, NO MATTER WHERE THEY COME FROM. A PROBLEM IGNORD BY ALL POLITICAL PARTIES, RELIGIONS AND SO CALLED LEADERS.
- Alan Green, Woodford Green
Main legislation is stop the selling off of council housing, that is so last century.
- William, Hay~Heath UK
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we set out to deceive"
- Judith C, London, England
The government has made council housing and the NHS there to serve immigrants, the illegals, so called asylum seekers and the work shy. The whole unfair system has to be changed, it is grossly unfair to British born workers and British taxpayers we are third class citizens in our own country.
- Maggie, London UK
I don't know where the Equalities Commission gets its figures but they are wrong. I have worked in Housing both in councils and Housing Associations and migrants and "refugees" - both single people and families - are given priority. Walk through any housing estate in South London and I think you will find the foreign tenants outnumber "local" people. I suspect the Commission fiddled the figures the same way as the people claiming they employ "local" people to work on the construction of the building for the Olympics - i.e. foreigners have a local address prior to getting council housing - be it living with relatives or in hostels or whatever. That is taken as their address for registration purposes - not their overseas address.
- Charlie, London
Sorry I cannot believe the Commission. I know people on waiting lists in various parts of the country and getting enough points seems near impossible. One couple waited ten years to get a larger house although they were classified as overcrowded whereas an immigrant couple near them were given a larger property within a year. As they say:- lies, damn lies and statistics!
- Man U Fan, London
If Gordon Brown got rid of the illegal and unwanted immigrants we already have in the country he wouldn't need to built any more houses. He wouldn't need to waste any more money on extra schools and hospitals either.
- Gloria G, London, UK
The real problem is not immigrants it is that huge numbers of council houses are allocated to pregnant girls under the age of twenty. In an age where contraception is thrown at them these girls knowingly get pregnant not to escape some evil maurading rapist of a father, or more likely no father at home, but simply to get on the free gravy train for life that our "social services" have become. A neighbour's daughter is living at home and has been on the council housing list for over ten years now and yet all of her friends who got pregnant and were given their own houses by the time they were twenty and none of these (all of them white "working" class) girls have jobs except stealing from you and me via the state. If these people want to have children let them stay in their parents home and if dad or step-dad is abusing them let dad or step-dad get out of the house and not the daughters. Of course ALL of the data we have on child abuse in this country is tainted with the something for nothing aspects of the "social services" as they will help get these people houses only if they or their children are at risk at home so who knows what the real facts of child abuse are any more. Not even Sweden has a something for nothing state any more and it time we didn't either, even a visit to a doctor in Sweden costs £15 now to get rid of time-wasters sponging everything they could just because it was free.
- John, Aberdeen, UK
Please will someone give me the route to Browns World? I need to get there pretty quick.
You see that in my world the government has bankrupted the nation, sold all meaningful assets, destroyed family, venerated the deviant in society, bred ferrel youth, imported foreign gods, deemed economics as the benchmark for a great nation, allowed a flood of dubious migrant criminals in, watched over 455 baby-womb deaths every day, sat back as terrorists plot the downfall of my land, mused as parallel Law Courts are set up in the name of a pseudo religion, and cheated tax payers and motorists relentlessly.
So I repeat give me directions to Gordon's World where you can spend your way out of poverty, ignore what people are really saying and you can sip pink gin as the ship sails aimlessly around the ocean without a rudder, a destination or captain. Yay! let me in please.
- Chris Williams, Cardiff
Yes that's the answer, build more houses. Ignore the fact that we are the most densely populated country in Europe and our infrastructure simply cannot take any more immigration.
Please, whatever you do Labour, do not consider controlling immigration.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Who believes the lying LIEbore Government? I'm sick and tired of hearing the rubbish spouted by the Government and the idiot liberals.
- Fred, London
I don't believe the Equality & Human Rights Commission. Perhaps 90% of current tenants were born in Britain. Will they divulge how many tenants who have been allocated housing since 1997 were born in Britain? The make-up of many council estates now consists of loads of immigrants, especially in London. Perhaps the right to buy has also fuelled the great change to neighbourhoods as people move out and rent their homes to councils/private landlords who then house asylum seekers.
- Ab, London
Well the Equality and HR commission couldn't possibly be biased could they.....? I find it difficult to see how you can argue against this idea. Of course Labout will not have the courage to carry it through once they receive any public criticism.
- Mark, London
