Raab’s use of outdated and oversimplified evidence is foolhardy
In response to demands that he produce the evidence for his claim that immigration is driving up house prices, the housing minister has now published the calculations. Do they back up his argument? First, it must be said that researching the drivers of house price increases is fraught with difficulty as there are so many […]
Raab’s claims about immigration oversimplify a complex housing problem
Dominic Raab, the housing minister, has rightly been asked to produce the evidence to back up his claim that immigration has put up house prices by 20 per cent over the past 25 years when the research suggests that immigration is just one factor pushing up housing demand and a minor one at that. The […]
Is Britain about anything other than battles?
How old was Mary, Queen of Scots, when she took the throne? Who won the Battle of Killiecrankie? Unless you know the answers, you’re not fit to be a British citizen. Well, of course you may be one already, but for people who take the Home Office’s Life in the UK test in the hope […]
If the government wants to tackle racial inequality it must act from the top
The government’s race disparity audit presents some basic facts about ethnic minorities and their position in the housing market. But incredibly, it says almost nothing about why the “disparities” with white British people occur. For example, the problem of discrimination is mentioned only once in the report, and then in relation to jobs. You can […]
The worst journey in the Americas
A review of The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail by Óscar Martínez Living in Nicaragua, I regularly meet people who have migrated or want to migrate to neighbouring countries. I’ve also met people who take their chances going to Spain without a visa (including one who claimed to be […]
Five myths about migrants and housing
What do you know about migrants and where they live? Here are five things often said about migrants’ housing rights that are untrue or only partially true. Get the facts here. Migrants have a right to social housing New migrants from outside the EU aren’t eligible for social housing except in very limited circumstances (e.g. […]
Government plans to extend ‘right to rent’ document checks face legal challenge
For several months the Home Office has been considering extending to the rest of the UK the document checks that are now compulsory when a new letting takes place in England. Since February last year, English landlords (with exceptions like lettings by councils and through nominations to housing associations) have had to make document checks […]
Brexit means we have to build fewer houses… or does it?
Ahead of the launch of the UK Housing Review, CIH is running a series of blogs trailing its content. In the first of these we look at whether some of the claims made about the likely impact of Brexit on housing demand stack up. It’s a claim already made by some newspapers opposed to building […]
Right to rent immigration checks put vulnerable people at risk
One year ago, on 1 February 2016, the government implemented its “right to rent” scheme, requiring landlords who let property in England to carry out checks on the immigration status of potential tenants, as part of a government drive to create a “hostile environment for illegal migrants”. The government plans to extend the scheme to […]
No separate queue for Cubans
‘We’re leaving,’ my Cuban friend N. told me in November. ‘We’re building a raft.’ I was shocked, partly because he planned to leave, partly because of the way he planned to do it. I consulted another friend, who’d spent several months in a coastguard team, hauling people out of the water when their rafts fell […]
John Perry lives in Masaya, Nicaragua where he works on