Who is let a new social home, by nationality

4 September 2026 · Figures in the text were correct on this date; the charts below are drawn live and will move as new periods are published.

In 2024/25, 88.7% of England's 262,944 new social lettings went to a UK-national lead tenant; the non-UK share has doubled since 2007/08, from 5.7% to 11.3%.

England let 262,944 new social homes in the year to March 2025. The lead tenant was a UK national in 233,198 of them (88.7%), a national of an EEA country in 9,830 (3.7%), and a national of any other country in 19,916 (7.6%). These are new lettings in the year — a flow — not the people living in social housing, and the nationality is the lead tenant's at the point of letting; missing answers are imputed by MHCLG in this table, so the three groups cover every letting.

The non-UK share has doubled over the series. In 2007/08, 12,369 of 217,846 new lettings (5.7%) went to a non-UK lead tenant; in 2024/25 it was 29,746 of 262,944 (11.3%). The composition has shifted too: in 2013/14 EEA nationals (17,585) outnumbered all other countries (14,162), while in 2024/25 the other countries group (19,916) was roughly twice the EEA group (9,830).

For the latest year the department also names specific nationalities, without imputation. Among named non-UK nationalities the largest were Poland (2,685 lettings), Iran (1,451), Afghanistan (1,336), Eritrea (1,060) and Ukraine (1,055) — and 37,932 lettings are recorded as "tenant prefers not to say", which is why this table cannot be compared with the grouped one above.

The volume of lettings matters as much as the shares: new lettings peaked at 394,693 in 2013/14 and have since fallen by about a third, so every group is drawing on a smaller pool. The full series and both nationality splits are on their own pages.