Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Monday, 19 July 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 July 2010. It was answered by Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 27 July 2010 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Social Rented Housing: Foreign Nationals

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his most recent estimate is of the total number of foreign national headed households in social housing; and what this represents as a proportion of the total social housing stock.

Answer: Over the two years 2006-07 and 2007-08 there were, in England, an estimated 310,000 foreign national headed households in social housing—accounting for 7.7% of all social households.These figures were derived from the Survey of English Housing. More recent estimates will be released in autumn 2010 when the final report of the inaugural English Housing Survey for 2008-09 is published.The definition of 'foreign national' used above is consistent with that used in published results from the Survey of English Housing; namely a foreign national is someone who is not a national of the UK or Ireland.

Secondary information