{"id":2812,"date":"2026-08-29T13:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T13:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2026-08-29T13:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T13:44:23","slug":"edinburgh-puts-migrants-first-for-social-housing-telegraph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2026\/08\/29\/edinburgh-puts-migrants-first-for-social-housing-telegraph\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh puts migrants first for social housing \u2013 Telegraph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Locals have seen their applications frozen as the Scottish capital grapples with a homelessness crisisPublished 29 Aug, 2026 12:01 | Updated 29 Aug, 2026 13:05<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Edinburgh<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FILE PHOTO: Tents belonging to homeless people being set up on the sidewalk in Edinburgh. \u00a9 Getty Images \/ Piotr Zajac<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Labour-run city council in Edinburgh has been prioritizing homeless migrants for social housing, while putting thousands of requests from Scottish nationals on hold, the Telegraph has reported, citing the administration\u2019s internal documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proportion of temporary accommodations provided to migrants in Scotland\u2019s capital has grown from 1% to 16% since 2023, the paper said in an article on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foreigners were put atop the waiting line under a policy introduced in April 2025, the report read. Meanwhile, applications from some 31,000 locals remained frozen, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edinburgh is facing a homelessness crisis, which has been exacerbated by the influx of migrants into Britain, the Telegraph said, citing the council\u2019s internal documents. The number of homeless people in the city has surged by 75% over the last five years, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dozens<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Many migrants whose asylum claims have been approved by the Home Office choose to come to Scotland in search of accommodation due to its liberal housing policies, according to the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotland abolished the \u201cpriority need\u201d<\/em> test in 2012, making all people assessed as unintentionally homeless eligible for settled accommodation. In 2022, the Scottish National Party (SNP) government also removed local-connection requirements for homeless applicants within Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reform UK\u2019s Scottish deputy leader, Thomas Kerr, said the council should stop providing housing to \u201cstrangers and outsiders\u201d<\/em> and finally start taking care of its own people.
<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to see local connection rules fully restored, more social housing built and deportations for those who should not even be here in the first place,\u201d<\/em> he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to Kerr, Scottish \u201cnationals who work hard, pay their taxes, reach across their community are worth more than finding themselves slipping further down the list.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When approached for comment by the Telegraph, Scottish Housing Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville said that \u201cScotland has some of the strongest homelessness rights in the world, and we will not roll these back.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The homelessness crisis is a result of the migration policies of the British government, and it is up to London to \u201cproperly fund its asylum processes and ensure newly recognized refugees and communities can be supported,\u201d<\/em> Somerville said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 100,000 people were receiving asylum support in the UK as of the end of March, according to government figures, including more than 20,000 housed in hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A YouGov poll published earlier in August showed that 69% of Britons believe immigration over the past decade has been too high, while 43% said it had been mostly bad for the country, up from 33% in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Locals have seen their applications frozen as the Scottish capital grapples with a homelessness crisisPublished 29 Aug, 2026 12:01 | Updated 29 Aug, 2026 13:05 FILE PHOTO: Tents belonging to homeless people being set up on the sidewalk in Edinburgh. \u00a9 Getty Images…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2813,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions\/2813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}