Migration Watch don't seem to be clear whether the figure in Lewisham is 6% or 9%. While they state that 'the proportion confirmed as going to British nationals is 58%', it is a huge assumption to make that 35% of applicants refused to state their nationality because they are not British. I've heard plenty of British people who refused to complete ethnicity/nationality questionnaires.

But George Whale still fails to recognise the difference between current occupation of properties and allocation of social housing in a single year. The assumption that all social housing is occupied by the same proportions of nationalities as new allocations in 2011 has no logical basis.

The claim that "up to 40 percent of Lewisham social housing is occupied by non-British nationals" is not supported by the Migration Watch statistics. George Whale should correct this statement.