Reform UK would evict social housing tenants over untidy gardens

Dismissed by others as ‘unserious and unworkable’

What Reform UK is proposing

Reform says that the garden rule, which sits inside a far broader overhaul, would throw any foreign national out of their existing social home.

It would also reorder the queue for new homes in favour of young married couples born in Britain.

According to deputy leader Richard Tice, British-born working couples with children would get the highest priority, and Reform would change the law to guarantee it.

This, according the the party, is alongside a promised boom in social housebuilding by councils and housing associations.

The definition of “British-born” is carrying a lot of weight.

While Anderson and Tice said people born abroad to British parents who were temporarily overseas would count, those born abroad to foreign parents, even if they have lived in the UK as British citizens for almost their entire lives, would not.

The politics of the pitch

As The BBC reported, Anderson framed the plan as a return to an older council housing settlement, claiming tenants once had to be married, had to keep their homes maintained and were inspected regularly by council officers.

Meanwhile, this policy was dismissed by Labour as “unserious and unworkable”, accusing Reform of pushing “gimmicks and division”.

It lands with the party under pressure after Reform’s recent slide in the polls, and after set-piece moments such as a Clacton voter’s takedown of a Reform canvasser travelled well beyond the doorstep.

With no election called, this is a statement of intent rather than a bill, but it sharpens the fight over who social housing is built for, and over who exactly would be inspecting the flower beds.