In October 2010, Birmingham and Wolverhampton Councils announced that they will no longer house asylum seekers on behalf of the government when their five year contract with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) ends on 30 June 2011. This will mean that asylum seekers will be housed by private housing providers, like the notorious Angel Group, who make millions out of government contracts to house asylum seekers in intolerable conditions.

Birmingham and Wolverhampton Councils are part of a consortium with Dudley and Coventry. Birmingham, the biggest council in the country, currently provides up to 190 homes for asylum seekers and Wolverhampton provides 124 homes. Dudley Council, which provides 73 homes, said it will remain in the consortium until at least June 2012, and Coventry Council, which provides 74 homes, said it will continue working with UKBA but will closely monitor the situation. Other councils could soon follow suit.

The move has been defended by the Councils, because of increased numbers on council waiting lists, a result of the economic crisis and the savage cuts in public spending and services. There are 30,000 people on the waiting list in Birmingham; there has been a 140% increase in the number of homeless people since January 2010 and there are expected to be 7,500 homeless people applying for long term housing by the end of the year. In Wolverhampton there are 13,405 people on the waiting list, with 6,868 in ‘housing need’. Asylum seekers are obviously not considered to be in ‘housing need’.

Last month Birmingham council finished building four new council houses – the first in three decades! There are schemes to build more homes but which fall way short of meeting needs, and with government cuts these schemes are threatened with being shut down at every stage.

Instead of building more homes the council has chosen to end the contract with UKBA in a clear attempt to scapegoat asylum seekers for housing shortages, justify waiting lists and shift public anger away from the government.

Freeing up 190 homes is hardly going to ease the 30,000 strong waiting list; racism is being used to sow divisions in the working class as asylum seekers are portrayed as being in competition for houses and as being less deserving than ‘local’ people.

Asylum seekers are not responsible for the shortage council homes; decisions to build fewer and fewer were made under the previous Labour government and this policy has now been taken up by the Coalition.  In 1997 Labour planned to sell 250,000 council houses a year. It is estimated that by 2011 there will be five million people on local authority waiting lists and, according to the National Housing Federation, households on the waiting list in some areas would have to wait 280 years for a home.

Just as decent universal education is a basic human right so too is decent affordable housing, and just as the students have taken to the streets to demand what is rightfully theirs, so too must we all: for housing, healthcare employment and benefits –  not pitched against asylum seekers and migrant workers but alongside them, against the government. Racism is used to divide us; the only way we can defend ourselves is by putting anti-racism at the centre of the movement and uniting to fight the cuts.

Decent housing for all! End destitution! Together we are stronger!

Mark Moncada

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