New law to ban renting houses to illegal immigrants

Burnham hit out at the proposed requirement for landlords to investigate the immigration status of tenants, saying it would make a few of them unwilling to offer homes to people with “foreign-sounding names or accents”.

Andy Burnham said the new law could mark a return to the discrimination seen when landlords put up signs warning: “No dogs, no blacks, no Irish”.

Last week Mr Cameron used his party conference speech to warn people with ethnic-sounding names are half as likely to get a job interview as their rivals.

‘It seeks to propagate immigration myths rather than slay them and, like her speech, owes more to headline-chasing rhetoric rather than clear, hard evidence, ‘ he wrote in the Independent on Sunday. Of course, we have come a long way as a society since landlords displayed unwelcoming notices in their windows.

He said Labour would not “pander to prejudice” and called on Home Secretary Theresa May to rethink the plans. “In follow, it might find yourself making Britain a extra hostile place for anybody with a foreign-sounding identify – worsening the very drawback that Cameron stated he needed to problem”.

“An expert consultative panel, which includes the Equality and Human Rights Commission, as well as representatives of landlords and letting agents, advised on the implementation of the first phase of the scheme in the West Midlands”.

The charity’s online survey of 31 landlords also found 42% were less likely to let to someone without a British passport.

“The aim of the Immigration Bill is to make Britain a ‘hostile environment’ for illegal migrants”.

“Many landlords were already carrying out similar checks before the scheme started, and many in the West Midlands have reported that it is possible to incorporate the checks into normal tenant vetting procedures”.

Specialist lender Commercial Trust has warned that landlords who fail to carry out checks face the “unnerving” prospect of a possible prison sentence.

Burnham said: “The new document checks could become the modern equivalent of the ‘no dogs, no blacks, no Irish” signs and, by being more insidious, such casual discrimination will be far harder to challenge’.

In a letter to Labour MPs, he said the party should vote against the legislation if its reasoned amendment is not accepted. The current safeguards against discrimination are insufficient. She said: “There are millions of people in poorer countries who would love to live in Britain, and there is a limit to the amount of immigration any country can and should take”.

A Right to Rent scheme will require landlords to carry out checks on prospective tenants, such as seeing their passport or visa, to ascertain their immigration status.

A Home Office spokesperson has declined to comment.