Asylum seekers last in the housing queue: Britain’s biggest council decides to put its locals first

From The Daily Mail:

By Jack Doyle
Last updated at 2:24 AM on 9th October 2010

Cllr John Lines said the decision was 'in the interests of local people'Cllr John Lines said the decision was ‘in the interests of local people’

The largest council in the country is to stop providing homes for asylum seekers – so it can offer the properties to locals.

Birmingham City Council said last night that it had seen a surge in the number of existing residents who found themselves homeless in the aftermath of the economic slump.

Currently, nearly 200 homes are handed to asylum seekers who have been sent to the city while their applications are being processed by the UK Border Agency.

But the council is to cancel its contract with UKBA so the homes can instead be given to those who hail from the city.

Councillor John Lines, Birmingham’s cabinet member for housing, said the decision was ‘in the interests of local people’. He explained that the council expects nearly 8,000 applications for homes this year alone.

‘Over the last year, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of homeless people in Birmingham and we must help the citizens of this city first and foremost,’ he said.

‘With a long waiting list for homes, we really need all our properties for our people in these difficult economic times. I believe the UK Border Agency should find somewhere else to carry out their duties.’

Mr Lines said delays within UKBA meant hundreds of asylum seekers were obtaining British citizenship while they waited for their cases to be decided.

‘When they have been given citizenship the city of Birmingham has to treat them as citizens and give them one of our rare homes,’ he added.

‘I’m putting hundreds of Brummies in bed and breakfast, local people who possibly through no fault of their own are homeless.

‘I couldn’t sit here and allow the situation where Birmingham people have had to tolerate that whilst the border agency has got up to 200 of my homes for people who have come here for political asylum.’

Under the five-year contract, the council provided 190 properties to asylum seekers, but with turnover it meant up to 1,000 staying in the city every year.

The contract – which also involved Wolverhampton, Dudley and Coventry councils – comes to an end in June next year and will not be renewed, Mr Lines said.

Wolverhampton council is also expected to follow suit and stop housing asylum applicants, he added. Birmingham is run by a joint Liberal Democrat and Tory coalition, and is seen as indicating possible policy directions for the Government.

The UK Border Agency’s Regional Director for the Midlands and East of England, Gail Adams, said: ‘We’re disappointed by Birmingham City Council’s decision to withdraw from the West Midlands Consortium.

‘The Consortium’s existing contract will continue until June next year. UKBA will manage the transition to new accommodation in accordance with the terms of the contract.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319051/Asylum-seekers-housing-queue-Britains-biggest-council-decides-locals-first.html#ixzz11sjqgiK0

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

5 Replies to “Asylum seekers last in the housing queue: Britain’s biggest council decides to put its locals first”

  1. The old saying is “charity begins at home”, legal citizens and freeborn Englishmen must come first. Then the so-called asylum seekers and all of the rest who seem to want to live off the West. I rarely hear of a wealthy Islamic country taking in any of their impoverished brethren, they would rather import dirt cheap labor from third world countries and treat them like dirt.

  2. Birmingham Council Decision on Asylum Seekers Confirms BNP Was Right
    Sat, 09/10/2010 – 15:15 | BNP News

    The decision by Birmingham City Council to stop giving council houses to “asylum seekers” is an indication of precisely how anti-British its previous social housing policy was and has confirmed that the British National Party’s accusations that British people have been put last, as completely accurate.

    Furthermore, the fact that it is only one out of thousands of local authorities which actively pursued this policy, proves that all local authorities are effectively promoting policies which put British people last.
    According to reports, Birmingham, which is Britain’s biggest council, has taken the decision “in the interests of local people.”
    A Tory councillor, John Lines, was quoted as saying that the local authority had not renewed its contract with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in terms of which council housing was reserved for” asylum seekers.”
    Apparently some 190 houses are currently occupied by “asylum seekers who have been sent to the city while their applications are being processed.
    Now however, the ConDem alliance which runs Birmingham Council have decided that the houses should rather be given to locals following the news that there are currently 30,000 people on the housing waiting list and homelessness in the city has increased by 140 per cent since January.
    The contract, which also includes Wolverhampton, Dudley and Coventry councils, comes to an end in June next year.
    However, it is too early for indigenous Britons to presume that the ConDem coalition have really had a change in heart and are now suddenly committed to promoting the interests of British people.
    A far more likely reason for the Council’s about-turn is the fact that so-called “ethnic minorities” are forming an increasingly larger number of voters in Birmingham.
    According to a survey published in January this year, at least three parliamentary constituencies in Birmingham, have a majority of ethnic “minority” voters. For example, the Birmingham Ladywood constituency has a 64.9 percent ethnic “minority” voter base, while Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath has a 64.8 percent ethnic “minority” voter base.

    The results of a 2008 study called Mapping of Race and Poverty in Birmingham, written by Alessio Cangiano of the ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS at the University of Oxford) showed that most wards in the south central part of the city and some western wards were “seriously deprived.

    “ In some neighbourhoods, Sparkbrook, Aston and Handsworth, most ethnic groups experience a higher disadvantage in comparison to members of the same communities residing in other wards,” the report continued, adding that there “is a strong correlation between poverty and concentration of ethnic minorities.”

    In other words, those most likely to qualify for council housing in Birmingham are from the ethnic “minorities” (soon to be ethnic majorities) and this demographic change against the indigenous British population is the most likely real reason for the ConDem change of heart.

    It seems that British people are to be put last no matter what by the ConDem and Labour authorities, no matter where they are.

  3. Another sign that the ordinary people are starting to fight back against the Moslem takeover, this move was caused by the economic problems (which are probably going to get worse in the next 6 months) but it will cause other cities to reconsider their policies.

  4. Encouraging. Perhaps more reports like the following will increase similar moves throughout England . . .
    Spectator: Britain’s welfare ghettos

    Not surprisingly, it is in the North of England and South Wales where most welfare ghettos are to be found. But England’s benefits capital remains Central and Falinge in Rochdale. While Chris Grayling’s figures suggested that 76 percent of the population there were state dependents, 84 percent of the population live on them in 2010 – 77 per cent on out-of-work benefits alone.