Kemi Badenoch’s plan to bar foreign nationals from social housing has been branded “unserious and unworkable” by critics, who accused the Conservatives of copying a similar scheme announced by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Under the proposal, single tenants who aren't UK, Irish or EU citizens would be evicted from their homes within six months – regardless of whether they have children – while new tenancies would be closed off to anyone without settled status, including couples where neither partner is a UK or EU citizen. The party says the changes could free up 230,000 homes for British families.

But housing charities, a housing lawyer and Labour all warned the policy could breach the UK’s human rights obligations and end up in court – pointing out that government figures already show nine in ten social lets go to UK nationals.

Independent readers had plenty to say too, many turning the debate back on the Conservatives’ own record, from Right to Buy to years of under-building council housing. Others picked apart whether the plan would even work in practice.

Here’s what you had to say:

The Tories’ own record is a catalogue of failures

Poor old Tories. On pretty much every significant policy area, their own record in government is at best a catalogue of failures and at worst has caused the problems that they now complain of. Every Conservative government since 2010 has pledged to bring immigration down, every one presided over increases. It was the Tories who sold off social housing, and it was the Tories who strangled local authorities by introducing legislation to actually prevent them from building more. Farage bleating on about immigration is a joke too. The so-called “Boris wave” was a consequence of the acute labour shortages that loomed in the wake of Brexit. What would Farage have done had he been in power? Let businesses fail and the care sector fall apart completely?

Why wait 15 years to announce this?

The question needs to be asked: given the Tories were in government for nearly 15 years, why have they waited until now to come out with this policy? I believe it is yet another attempt by Badenoch to out-Reform Reform. Much has been written about Badenoch’s apparent approval ratings rise, but this is not being reflected in the polling for the Tory party. This is clearly another ill-thought-out, cruel policy designed to appeal to Reform supporters in the hope of persuading them back into the Tory fold.

You fix a shortage by building more homes

I work in social housing and the issue is that we have lost thousands of properties to Right to Buy, and around 40 per cent of those are now in the hands of private landlords, and were never replaced. You do not fix a shortage of something by making it harder for certain groups to access it. You fix the shortage. The answer is build more social homes.

The arsonists are scapegoating others for the fire they started

Who sold off much of the social housing in the UK and prevented more from being built? It was the Tories. Many of the properties have now gone into the hands of buy-to-let private landlords, so families wanting to rent have to pay more. Demand for housing is higher as well, because fewer homes are available for long-term rent, as so many homes in the south west and other tourist areas are used for Airbnb. The arsonists who created the problem are scapegoating others in the hope of getting votes.

Right to Buy was a ‘vindictive scam’

The lack of social housing goes back to Thatcher, who had a vendetta against the post-war settlement. Her Right to Buy policy sold homes at a discount and prevented councils from using the proceeds to build replacements, which is why so many of those properties ended up in the hands of buy-to-let landlords instead. Cameron and Osborne, who reportedly believed council houses breed Labour voters, later extended Right to Buy to housing associations too. Curiously, the Tories never extended Right to Buy to tenants on private country estates. I wonder why.

The policy raises more questions than it answers

There are real problems with this policy. What happens with a joint tenancy where one partner has a UK passport and the other doesn’t – does the whole tenancy end, evicting the eligible UK partner too? There’s also no clarity on how an up-to-date record of every tenant’s citizenship would even be compiled, and altering a legally binding tenancy contract retrospectively sets an awkward precedent for civil contracts more broadly – if the state can do it here, why not to a mortgage or credit agreement?

A council flat bought for £55,000 is now worth £1.5m

As I wrote before, friends of ours lived in a council flat in North London. The Tories introduced Right to Buy and our friends bought their flat for £55,000 many years ago. It is now worth well over £1.5m. Only three parties out of 17 in the building bought their flats; the others didn’t bother. I wonder if they are sorry now. Of course, no new council accommodation was built to replace the homes sold.

Won’t housing benefit just pick up the difference?

Are we being dragged down a rabbit hole? It isn’t the tenancies but the housing benefit, isn’t it? If people are removed from social housing and told to find private accommodation, won’t housing benefit still apply if they’re eligible, in which case it will be higher, given that in most cases private is more expensive than social? Or are the Tories saying that they’ll have to move out of social housing and have their benefits stopped?

Building more homes would be cheaper and fairer

Under the Tories almost no social housing was built, creating short supply. Under the Tories immigration was brought up to unprecedented levels. Now they want to convince you that evicting the minority of foreign nationals (who have settled status in the UK) from social housing will somehow solve a problem! Never mind that many of these people have been living there and paying rent for decades. I dare say it would be cheaper, more straightforward, more legally viable and produce a lasting asset to simply build 10 per cent more social houses than expend who knows how much evicting 10 per cent of paying tenants for no other crime than not being a British citizen.

Even Thatcher wasn’t obsessed with immigration

If the Tories keep trying to mimic Reform then they will keep themselves out of power for a very long time, plus Reform’s opinion poll rating has gone right down. They were a pro-business party, and now they are obsessed with immigration. Even Thatcher, who I certainly did not like, was not obsessed with immigration. She was very pro-business friendly, and that’s why she won three consecutive elections. People’s priorities are the NHS and the cost of living crisis, and Andy Burnham is addressing these issues.

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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