'Queue jumping immigrants' are a myth, says study
The claim that immigrants jump the queue for council houses will be exposed as a myth next week by an exhaustive national survey.
It will undermine Gordon Brown's promise to let local authorities give "more priority" to people with local links in the allocation of empty properties. His move was widely seen yesterday as a response to the suspicion – successfully exploited in last month's local and European elections by the British National Party – that white families were losing out to new arrivals in obtaining council or housing association homes.
The policy, echoing Mr Brown's ill-fated "British jobs for British workers" slogan, brought warnings from the opposition and immigration groups that the Prime Minister was allowing the BNP to set the political agenda.
The Independent has learned that a two-year investigation has failed to uncover "queue jumping" by immigrants and will describe the belief in its existence as a popular prejudice.
The inquiry – based on analysis of authority housing allocation and interviews with housing association managers – was set up two years ago by Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Local Government Association. Its conclusions will be set out next week. Mr Phillips conceded at the time the inquiry was established that there was a widespread public belief that migrants received unfair advantages.
But research last year discovered 90 per cent of people in council properties were born in Britain. New arrivals in the country represented 2 per cent of the general population, but less than 3 per cent of those in social housing.
