The government is examining how to tighten rules to ensure that local people are given priority access to social housing as part of a range of measures to discourage Romanians and Bulgarians from coming to Britain from next year, when EU restrictions are lifted.
As William Hague said the government wanted to remove any “perverse incentives” that encourage people to come to Britain, Downing Street said ministers were looking at “different types of policies and tools” to ensure that people with local connections are given priority on housing.
The prime minister’s spokesman confirmed the government would soon publish a range of options to tighten up on benefits and access to housing when Romanians and Bulgarians are given full rights to settle in the UK from next January.
Citizens from the two countries have been free to travel to the UK since Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, though “transitional controls” on the right to work were imposed for the first seven years of EU membership.