Migrant housing firms 'snapping up homes in most deprived communities'

ENTIRE streets are being lined up to accommodate asylum seekers only, it has been claimed.

- By Michael Knowles

Twelve Reform councillors told the Home Office contractors are sweeping up properties in “our most deprived communities”.

Ministers have set aside £500million for a “more sustainable accommodation model” as they scramble to close 210 hotels that are holding migrants.

But local authorities run by Nigel Farage’s party allege that means whole stretches of new housing are not available to “local people”.

Communities in Dover, Thanet, Canterbury and Folkestone in Kent are reportedly hit the hardest.

The warning comes after 435 migrants landed at Dover on Saturday — the highest daily total since the “one in, one out” deal with France began last Wednesday - and more arrived yesterday.

Hundreds of protesters joined an anti-immigration demonstration in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on Saturday. A boy of 17 was arrested but police said the protest was peaceful.

Meanwhile a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper signed by the 12 council leaders states: “The sites that Home Office contractors identify are almost always in the midst of our most deprived communities where property is cheapest and of poor quality (not meeting the standards upheld by local authorities) and where pressure on public services is highest due to there already being a mix of vulnerable people.