Written question asked by Lembit Opik (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 14 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 16 July 2008. It was answered by Iain Wright (Labour) on Monday, 1 September 2008 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Housing: Immigrants

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of economic migrants entering the UK in each of the last five years have been housed in the (a) owner-occupied, (b) social rented and (c) private rented sector.

Answer: Information on the current housing tenure of economic migrants who entered the UK during the past five years is not available.However, the Department has information from the Survey of English Housing for 2005-06 and 2006-07 on the total number of recent migrant householders by housing tenure. It is estimated that of all migrant householders who arrived in the UK during the past two years and are currently living in England: 3 per cent. are in owner occupation; 7 per cent. are in the social rented sector; and 90 per cent. are in the private rented sector.

Secondary information