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.

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.

The Conservatives said Labour had “lost control of immigration” and British families had been left sitting on housing waiting lists as a result.

But Labour said the policy was an “unserious, unworkable proposal, copied from Reform, that does nothing to tackle the housing crisis the Tories themselves created”.

In June, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he would make it a requirement for foreign national tenants to find private accommodation within three months or face possible deportation if his party won power.

Under the Tory proposals, ineligible tenants would be expected to move out of their homes within six months.

Any single person currently living in social housing who is not a UK, Irish or EU citizen would lose their social home. This includes those with or without children.

Couples, where neither of them are UK or EU citizens, and they do not have EU settled status, will also lose their entitlement.

Anyone with EU settled status would not be evicted.

For future tenancies, UK nationals and those with EU settled status would be eligible but any new EU citizens without settled status would not be.

Foreign nationals with settled status, refugee status, or specific humanitarian protections can currently qualify for social housing.

Asylum seekers are not eligible for social housing, unless in exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases.

Social housing, usually provided by housing associations or local councils, is typically cheaper and more secure than privately rented homes.

When they were last in government in 2024, the Conservatives were considering plans to make it a requirement for foreign nationals to have to live in the UK for 10 years before qualifying for social housing.

There are 1.34 million households on social housing waiting lists, as of March 2025, the latest government figures.

The vast majority of social housing lettings are given to single people.

In 2024-25, most lead tenants of new social lettings, the person in whose name the social home is rented, were UK nationals – 89% or 233,000 tenants.

In the same period, 2.3% of new lettings were given to refugees – 800 refugees were UK nationals, while the remaining 3,900 were non-UK nationals.

The most common nationality of refugees in a new social letting was Afghanistan with the second most common being Ukraine.

Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “Making Britain your home should be earned by working, paying tax and integrating.

“It should not come with a free ride on the benefits system. Britain cannot be a cash machine for the world.

“Labour has lost control of immigration and lost control of the welfare bill, and it is British families picking up the bill and sitting on waiting lists.”

Labour said the Conservative policy would primarily affect refugees and long-term UK residents who had contributed to the country, while also leaving more families at risk of homelessness.

“No amount of headline-chasing, or following Reform to the extremes, can hide the damage the Tories did to our housing system. The least they could do is acknowledge their failures and apologise,” the spokesperson said.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter said there were already strict rules on eligibility for social housing and accommodation was not handed out to people on arrival.

“These divisive plans would brutally kick people out of their homes, including thousands of families and pensioners who have lived in them for decades,” chief executive Sarah Elliott said.

“The housing emergency is caused by successive governments failure to build enough genuinely affordable social homes – not by who accesses social housing.”

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said the Conservatives were trying to copy his party’s policy but accused them of not going far enough as their proposed ban does not include those with EU settled status.

“Incredibly, Kemi Badenoch’s new policy is to allow tens of thousands of foreign nationals from the EU to occupy British social housing funded by British taxpayers,” he said.

“Reform UK will ensure British social housing is strictly for British citizens.”