London Mayor Sadiq Khan says convicts sent to prison for their crimes should be rewarded for their lawbreaking by being prioritized for taxpayer-subsidized social housing on release. The Labour Party politician believes giving ex-cons housing will encourage them not to commit further crimes.
“For us the big challenge is there is no housing in London, a big shortage of housing in London,” he said at a Crime and Justice Commission event organized by The Times, insisting it is time for “an honest conversation with our constituents about the reasons why people who have offended and come out of prison may need to jump in the queue to get housing to avoid them reoffending again.”
Questioned as to whether convicts being released from prison early by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should be among the criminals who benefit from social housing priority, he confirmed: “A certain percentage. Yeah, it’s the honest conversation we’ve got to have with people across our respective cities and stuff to explain the reason we’re doing this.”
Migrants and their descendants already occupy an enormous share of social housing in Britain’s hyper-diverse capital. For instance, 74 percent of all Somalis in London are in social housing, and migrant-headed households occupy 47.6 percent of the city’s social housing stock overall.
Statistics are not held for people with British citizenship but of recent migration background, although figures for religion and ethnicity give some indication. For instance, 37.6 percent of Muslim households and 41-45 percent of black African, black Caribbean, and “other black” households in London are in social housing. The ‘White British’ figure is only 16.3 percent.
Labour Party strategists are currently being brought to America to advise the Democrats ahead of the U.S. election.
