To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many general needs lettings were made by (a) local authorities and (b) registered social landlords to nationals of (i) EEA countries and (ii) non-EEA countries in the latest year for which figures are available. (254172)

Information on the number of foreign national households allocated social housing is collected in the Continuous Recording of Letting form (CORE). A question on nationality was first introduced to the form for the 2006-07 data collection period. CORE is collected on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government by St. Andrew’s University. Historically CORE has only collected information from registered social landlords. An increasing number of local authorities are now providing information through this process as well, but there are still some gaps in the data.

In 2007-08 for registered social landlords, there were 2,060 new general needs lettings made to foreign nationals from European Economic Area (EEA) countries and 2,020 from non-EEA countries.

The number of local authority general needs lettings is estimated using an adjustment for missing data. This is not yet available for 2007-08 and is expected to be completed by March 2009.