“Do you know the way to the housing department?” The query from the two men who stopped me in Victoria Street in London could at first have seemed an innocuous one.The two men, speaking with East European accents, asked directions to Westminster’s housing department – followed by Ealing and Camden’s. They explained that “if we go there, they will give us a house.”The encounter was truly stunning. This was not a feverish immigrant-baiting story cooked up by a newspaper, but a real-life encounter. Clearly there is a belief among some arriving in the UK that there is a bonanza in free council properties: simply turn up in the reception of civic centre and you will get a ticket to instant accommodation.My own council found itself recently splashed across the front page of the Daily Express on just this subject after a Bulgarian family of nine camped out in front of Westminster Cathedral and we carried out our legal duty to find temporary accommodation because children were involved (let me declare a personal interest here – my wife is the cabinet member responsible for children, young people and community protection).I suspect the front counter staff of local authority housing departments across the country might recognise echoes of my Victoria Street meeting in their daily dealings with the public. It is not pandering to closet xenophobia to suggest that the middle England mantra of “soft touch benefits Britain” may contain an element of truth.When residents on council estates read stories about migrants arriving in the country and being instantly given council or hostel accommodation, it makes their blood boil. Why bother to patiently play the waiting game, they might think, when you can play the system instead and get quicker results?The task for councils is not easy, but it is clear. There are three things local authorities should do.First, we need to explain to residents that councils have a legal duty in some cases – where children are involved, for example – to provide emergency housing. That is not politically correct favouritism towards any minority; it is the law of the land.Second, if national rules mean we have this responsibility, councils need funding to meet it. In Westminster, we believe the 2011 census woefully underestimated our population to the point where we will lose up to £15 million a year in funding. There are 6,900 short-term migrants we know about in Westminster. How many more, like my two friends on Victoria Street, are pitching up, using services that cost the council but are not being funded by central Government?Third, councils need to illustrate by example that, most of the time, houses do go to local families and individuals with a legitimate need. My council has 3,100 households on the waiting list and we do our level best with a shortage of stock and ever increasing demand to ensure the deserving get a roof over their heads. I am sure your council does the same.Contrary to urban myth, councils do not hand out properties without demur to new arrivals in the UK without checks or challenge. Westminster has already used the new anti-squatting rules to recover a family home from someone who had illegally lived there for two months.But councils need to be clear to central Government that our services are under colossal strain and this is being exaggerated by arrivals from EU and non-EU countries. This is a problem which needs a national focus. In parts of the country, not only housing departments but primary schools are buckling as they try to cope with ever bigger numbers. It is not overstating the case to suggest the end of this road is a breakdown in the social fabric unless we take careful action.I have no idea what happened to the two people I met in Victoria Street. They may have been lost; but they pointed out a clear issue to me.
