It's Official: Immigrants Don't Jump Housing Queue

A new report has established the facts about an issue usually dragged down by myths: immigrants don't top the housing list. Yes, despite what the BNP would have us believe, a mere 1.8% of social housing tenants are people who have arrived in Britain in the last five years - 98.2% are British-born or long-standing immigrants.

It is quite staggering how much myth-making goes on around the issue of immigration. People "just know" that asylum seekers get mobile phones from the state, that Britain is a "soft touch" compared with other countries, that all asylum seekers are bogus, that immigrants jump queues not just for housing but also for health care, social services and school places.

Rarely does the real truth get in the way of an assumed truth that assists prejudice and division. Let's hope that this report helps.