Author Archives: Steve Cooke

Margaret Hodge has provoked furious discussion by suggesting that ‘indigenous’ British families should receive priority for social housing over migrants regardless of need. I admit being shocked when I heard her comments on the BBC – they seemed so very clearly to echo BNP policy.

Throughout the piece I was prepared to accept that her comments without thinking her racist (though I did, and do, think she’s a damned fool), right up until I heard her say, in relation to the needs of migrants, “and their need will often override the entitlement that my white families feel”. What I’m still not clear about is whether she’s putting out her message because she believes it, or because she’s scared that if she doesn’t echo the BNP message in her constituency, she’ll lose votes.

I spent a couple of days mulling over what Margaret Hodge had said and found myself asking a few questions. I kept returning to just what an indigenous Britain actually is? Indigenous is a tricky word because it doesn’t have a clear definition. Trawling various dictionaries reveals connections with ethnicity, birthplace, natural association etc. What is clear is that it doesn’t refer to citizenship – and that is the problem. I think when Margaret Hodge linked indigenous population and white families she gave the game away. If she’d talked about the entitlement of British citizens over migrant workers to social housing then I think she’d be receiving far less criticism today. Sadly, she didn’t.

The question of whether citizenship should grant greater entitlement to social housing is, however, another area that’s not as straightforward as it first seems. You see; most migrant workers pay UK tax and make National Insurance contributions. Migrant workers also make a huge contribution to our economy and there are several sectors of our economy that could well collapse without them. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) concluded that every 1% rise in inward migration resulted in +1.5% growth to our economy. The issue of whether someone should be prioritised on grounds solely of nationality (or ethnicity as Mrs. Hodge would seem to want) becomes problematic – should a single British-born man be given priority for a council home over a large foreign family who are homeless (and might have lived here for many years)? I can certainly see how citizenship might be a factor used in the calculations that determine social housing allocation – but those calculations are currently based entirely on need. If we are to change that need-based calculation, then perhaps people might start asking for other factors to be taken account of – like criminal record, time spent in the country, contribution to society, etc. It becomes a very slippery slope.