If passed, the bill would also ensure illegal immigrants cannot get driving licences, and change the rules so private landlords have to check their tenants’ immigration status.
Landlords would face fines running into the thousands for those breaking the law.
The Immigration Bill will also limit the ability of European immigrants to claim benefits and ensure that the right to reside in Britain on the basis of family commitments is not abused by criminals.
Temporary migrants will also be charged for using the NHS and only those who have lived in an area for at least two years will qualify for social housing.
If passed, the bill would also ensure illegal immigrants cannot get driving licences, and change the rules so private landlords have to check their tenants’ immigration status.
It would also allow foreign criminals to be deported more easily, as well as people who are in the UK illegally, after the government’s repeated setbacks in its efforts to deport the radical cleric Abu Qatada.
Businesses caught employing illegal foreign labour would face bigger fines.
The planned immigration crackdown follows a surge in support for UKIP, which campaigns for a reduction in net migration, but the government insists the measures had been decided before last week’s local election results.
Responding to the Queen’s Speech, Stephen Thornton, RICS UK Director of External Affairs, said:
“Government’s proposals to introduce a duty on all landlords to ensure that their tenants are in the UK legally will impose more red tape on all landlords, particularly the growing number of ‘amateur’ buy to let landlords. Government must also make sure that the proposals do not increase costs to renters which they can often ill afford. ‘Amateur’ landlords operate without proper training or guidance, putting themselves and their tenants at risk. The Government has stubbornly refused to look at introducing better laws to protect both landlords and tenants – it is unacceptable that it expects the property industry to deliver its immigration policy.
Although the Queen’s Speech introduces potentially radical changes to pensions and social care, the real shape of the Government’s agenda to 2015 will be determined by the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) on 26th June and in the pace of the UK’s, the EU’s and global economic recovery. It remains to be seen whether this will deliver the real boost to construction, transport and home building our country needs.”
Jeremy Raj, head of residential property at London law firm Wedlake Bell, said:
“Expecting landlords to carry out the work of immigration officials is unreasonable and unworkable. It will create delays and uncertainty in an already difficult market, and clearly the vast majority of landlords will have no idea of how to go about it.
The lack of detail and sudden arrival of this idea suggests more to do with creating a political sound bite following the local elections than sensible law. Affordability and the lack of new housing remain the key issues on which the Government should focus”