A Reform UK councillor has welcomed plans to remove foreign nationals from social housing, describing the proposal as “common sense” and saying the move is “long overdue”.
Speaking to GB News, Reform UK’s Kent County Council leader, Councillor Linden Kemkaran, voiced her support for the policy unveiled by Nigel Farage in his first Substack article.
In the post, Farage said a Reform government would remove foreign nationals from council housing, giving them three months to secure private accommodation or potentially face deportation.
The housing freed up would then be prioritised for veterans, survivors of domestic abuse, care leavers and what Reform calls “long-term local residents”.
Backing the proposal, Kemkaran rejected GB News presenter Dawn Neesom’s suggestion that the policy was “shocking”.
She said: “Is it shocking? I read Nigel’s new Substack and my reaction was simply, ‘Finally.’ At last, we have a political leader speaking common sense.
“Someone is recognising the strain being placed on public services that hardworking taxpayers contribute towards.”
Kemkaran argued that if the Conservatives had introduced similar measures while in government, they might still be in office today.
She said: “Large numbers of social housing properties are being allocated to people who are not British citizens or passport holders. Why should they have priority access to such a limited and valuable resource?
“I don’t find the policy shocking at all. I think it’s long overdue. Had the Conservatives shown more backbone and responded to public concerns while they were in power, they may well still be governing.”
The Reform councillor acknowledged that tackling Britain’s housing crisis would require difficult decisions.
She said: “We have to make some tough choices. Immigration levels over the past two decades have exceeded what the country can realistically manage.
“We’ve seen huge numbers of people arrive, some legally and many illegally. Many have struggled to find work that allows them to rent privately or buy a home, and as a result they’ve ended up accessing social housing.”
She added: “The reality is that there wasn’t enough social housing even before Labour opened the door to this latest surge in migration.
“Stocks have been low for years, and successive governments failed to invest enough in building new council homes and expanding social housing.
“These homes are a precious resource. If they’re being used by people who have recently arrived in the country, it leaves local people with little chance of getting one. That’s fundamentally unfair. I think Nigel’s proposals are absolutely right and long overdue.”
When asked whether Reform would pursue an American-style immigration enforcement strategy involving the forced removal of people from homes, Kemkaran said she was unsure.
She explained: “I can’t say for certain, but Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf previously outlined their plans during a major press conference called Operation Restoring Justice, where they detailed how they would address these issues.
“We also need to break our dependence on cheap foreign labour. For too long we’ve relied on importing workers, often from poorer countries, to fill jobs that many British people no longer want to do. That approach has created a whole range of problems.”
