Migrants Should Be Given Housing Priority

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has recommended that migrants should be given priority by housing providers. A guide it has published - Housing and Migration: A guide to issues and solutions - on behalf of the Housing and Migration Network recognises that migrants are now a key client group for most housing organisations. Two years of research went into the guide which looks at the pressure that migration has put on the UK housing market. John Perry, policy advisor for CIH and author of the guide, said: “Housing providers need to know more about new communities that exist in the areas in which they work in so they can adequately deliver the appropriate services.” Download a copy of the report from the CIH website.

Shapps: £1.8m to Tackle Scandal of 'Beds in Sheds'

Criminal landlords trapping vulnerable people in 'suburban shanty-towns' will get the justice they deserve, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has pledged.  He allocated a £1.8 million fund to areas blighted by so-called 'beds in sheds', to tackle the problem head-on and end this growing practice by ruthless landlords.  Mr Shapps appealed to councils who may have turned a blind eye in the past to 'beds in sheds', to use this funding and the range of powers at their disposal, to tackle the issue.  'Beds in sheds' are often rented to migrants, including some with no right to be in the UK, at extortionate rates. Their foreign 'tenants' often find it difficult to return home quickly after destroying their passports to avoid removal. With few other options, they will put up with cramped conditions, dodgy wiring and poor sanitation as an alternative to life on the streets.  Mr Shapps said that the £1.8 million fund would help the worst affected councils flush out those who exploit migrants at their most vulnerable.  Read more on the CLG website.

Housing Rights of A8 Migrants

The Worker Registration Scheme ends on April 30 after that date and accession state nationals (citizens of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) will have similar rights to income-based benefits such as Jobseeker’s Allowance and Housing Benefit as other EU nationals. Find more information on this and other issues affecting migrant people on the CIH’s Housing Rights website.