What do Reform’s gains mean for housing and migration?

Local elections in England “laid bare an increasingly fragmented political system”, said the Guardian. Reform gained 1,349 council seats and control of at least 13 councils, with major gains in places such as Sunderland, Barnsley, Gateshead and South Tyneside. Added to last year’s wins, it so far controls a total of 23 councils. The party also holds a majority of seats, but not control, in another five. 

Reform made significant advances in Scotland and Wales (as did the Green Party in Scotland), but in Holyrood, the Scottish National Party remains the largest party. In Wales, while Labour lost control, Plaid Cymru won a majority in the Senedd. 

Huge changes in migration policy would follow a Reform win at Westminster, of which migrant access to housing would be part. For the moment, however, the question is what changes Reform-led councils might make locally. 

What do Reform’s gains mean for housing and migration? 

Reform’s top four policies focus on immigration: “Stop the boats; secure and defend our borders; deport illegal migrants; and scrap ILR to Avert the Boriswave.” They promise: “No more free housing. No more benefits. No more taxpayer-funded incentives for illegal migration. An end to NGOs facilitating illegal migration. Detention and deportation will be the only outcome.” According to the Financial Times, between 600,000 and two million recent migrants would be threatened with deportation if these changes went ahead. 

Reform explicitly aims to “Ensure that British citizens, veterans and those with strong local connections are prioritised for social housing.” It would change social housing law to “prioritise local people and those who have paid into the system”. Foreign nationals, it said, “must go to the back of the queue, not the front.” 

In changing policies at national level, Reform would face obstacles in the Equalities Act (EA) and Human Rights Act (HRA), which are both Great Britain-wide. Reform would scrap the EA and its “pernicious, divisive notion of protected characteristics”. It would also end the HRA and leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 

Leaving the ECHR would not be straightforward, because of the significant role it plays in Northern Ireland’s peace settlement (the Good Friday Agreement). Northern Ireland also remains in the European single market, which provides a degree of protection on human rights issues. 

What might Reform councils do locally? 

Reform councils are likely to pursue aspects of these national policies, insofar as they can within existing legislation. We look at four key issues and how to respond to them. 

Messaging: Housing shortages result from immigration 

 
Reform repeatedly argues that high migration increases pressure on housing supply and rents. Reform’s former housing spokesperson, Simon Dudley, describes the party as “pro-development” but says they will deal with demand as well as supply by cutting immigration. 

He says a Reform government’s housing policy would have to be linked to the retraining of unemployed people in order to fill construction roles so that the industry is “not reliant on overseas labour”. 

Here are some resources you can use to respond to these arguments: 

• Inside Housing has an article on the facts about migration that looks at how it relates to housing needs 
• CIH has a fact-filled article on dispelling the myths about migrants and housing, which looks at the real reasons for the housing shortage 
• A guide for councillors from the Migrant Champions Network also looks at the facts, including that 14 per cent of construction workers are migrants 
• Here’s an explainer on how migration is falling — which is ignored by most politicians (official projections of migration are argued to be too high) 
• The Scottish National Party has challenged Reform by arguing that too few migrants are coming to Scotland (the Migration Observatory looks at the facts on migration in Scotland and Wales). 

Putting ‘locals first’ in social housing 

 
Reform has proposed changing allocation rules so people with longer contribution/residency histories are prioritised. English councils have been able to impose local connection/residency requirements since 2012, but they also have to test them before and during operation to ensure their implementation does not violate EA/HRA requirements. 

The EA covers the nine protected characteristics. Of these, ‘race’ includes colour, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origins, preventing allocation policies from discriminating against these characteristics. The HRA adds an ‘other status’ category, which was used in a case about the discriminatory effects of Hillingdon’s 10-year residency requirement (Gypsies were covered by the EA; refugees by the HRA). Hillingdon lost the case. 

Resources on allocations: 

• The ‘dispelling myths’ article points out that only one in 10 new social tenancies are allocated to non-UK nationals, who in any case will probably have waited years before being offered a tenancy  
• Welsh housing association Trivallis faced allegations that new housing was going to migrants. — this article explains how they tackled them 
• South Liverpool Homes launched a campaign to tackle misinformation and confusion about how its homes are allocated, aiming to address myths and build stronger, fairer communities across south Liverpool 
• Refugee Action has a short video addressing questions around housing supply and migration. 

Opposition to asylum accommodation 

 
Reform-led councils have discussed withdrawing from refugee resettlement schemes and resisting asylum hotels. Zia Yusuf, the party chair, said the party would use “judicial reviews, injunctions, planning laws” in an effort to prevent them being accommodated. The home secretary possesses reserve powers under sections 100 and 101 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to require local authority cooperation, although the powers have never been used. In practice, the government might be reluctant to use such powers if there were strong local objections to asylum accommodation. 

The most noteworthy case of a council resisting asylum accommodation was that of the Bell Hotel in Epping (see below). Epping Council attempted to use planning law to prevent the hotel being used but lost a court case. Reform deputy leader Lee Anderson publicly backed the protests. 

Here are some resources for addressing the asylum accommodation question: 

• Kama Petruczenko from the Refugee Council outlines the recent developments around the Bell Hotel in Epping 
• Writing for Housing Rights, Janani Paramsothy considers how the sector responds to the issues raised by accommodating asylum seekers in hotels 
• Local Government Lawyer explains how councils have generally lost court actions to prevent asylum seekers being accommodated in their areas 
• In the Liverpool Express, council leader Liam Robinson explained why Liverpool has welcomed people from around the world, as well as correcting myths about asylum seekers 
• SOAS University made a film about what asylum hotels are really like. 

Ending commitments to equality and diversity 

Reform-led councils have made roughly £365 million of efficiency savings since May 2025, while imposing £250 million in extra taxes, according to analysis by the FT. However, despite targeting wasteful ‘DEI’ initiatives, in practice, most savings have come from elsewhere. 

Reform councils in places such as Durham have ended diversity and equality training for councillors. This raises questions about compliance with the public sector equality duty. Councils could face legal challenges if they avoid proper consideration of the impacts of decisions on groups with protected characteristics (such as non-UK nationals). 

Here is some guidance on these issues: 

• Any proposals to remove employees working on specific initiatives, such as diversity and inclusion, would need to comply with UK employment law — this includes considerations around unfair dismissal and discrimination 
• Channel 4 News examined the effects of ending diversity initiatives in Doncaster 
• The Housing Diversity Network reviews the effects of Reform policies on equality and diversity initiatives 
• The Guardian’s Nesrine Malik considers the result of normalising Reform’s ideas. 

Handling ‘populism’ and racism at local level 

As well as specific issues about housing, councils and councillors across the UK are adopting populist arguments about immigration, with the real risk of fomenting racism and increasing community tensions. 

Here are some articles on handling these issues: 

• CIH’s Rachael Williamson writes about housing, populism and the politics of belonging 
• Writing for Housing Rights, Ursula Aitchison of Chelmer Housing Partnership looked at how housing associations respond to racist violence 
• Right to Remain have produced guidance and a flyer on staying safe against the threat of far-right violence 
• The Belong Network and the LGA produced a practical toolkit “to help councils and communities build a future of trust and belonging in every neighbourhood” 
• The Migrant Champions Network has a guide to setting up an anti-misinformation network in your local area, to counter the rise of the far right and bring communities together (it also has a guide to supporting migrant communities) 
• A report on social cohesion by More in Common looks at the attitudes of Reform voters 
• The Conversation argues for listening to people and the power of life stories 
• “Silence is not an option,” writes Sahil Khan for the Housing Diversity Network 
• The Housing Diversity Network has a 14-point action plan for housing providers to support communities and community cohesion. 

Do get in touch if you have suggestions — or examples of local action — on these issues (email policyandpractice@cih.org).