IMMIGRANTS could be put to the back of the queue in the waiting list for social housing – a move cautiously welcomed in Worcester.

David Cameron wants to force district councils to make foreign nationals wait two years before joining the race for a council property.

At the moment any immigrant on benefits can apply to compete with British-born residents to get a house.

Worcester City Council, which has a waiting list 4,525 strong, says it would be prepared to accept new statutory guidance.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, deputy leader and cabinet member for economic prosperity, said: “In Worcester this issue is more perception than reality. To my knowledge immigrants work hard and often live in private rented accommodation – the Eastern Europeans tend to do jobs which prop the economy up, like food production and manufacturing.”

The council says 9.5 per cent of people on Worcester’s current housing waiting list – a total of 407 – are foreign nationals.

In the 2011/12 financial year nine per cent of all council homes in the UK went to immigrants, up from 6.5 per cent in 2007/08.

In Worcester the corresponding figure for 2011/12 was five per cent of the 450 new tenants. Council house tenant Sheila Malcolm, 54, of Drake Avenue, St John’s, said: “I think it’s a good thing – if I went abroad I’d expect to be at the back of any waiting list anyway.”

During a speech on Monday, Mr Cameron also outlined a benefits crackdown next year – saying jobseeker’s allowance will be stripped from immigrants after six months unless they can prove they have a “genuine chance” of employment.

Worcester MP Robin Walker said: “It seems exactly what people have been calling for, although the truth is that only a small minority abuse the system.

“If you look at the immigrants from Poland they have mainly come here to work, they work hard and pay their taxes. There is public concern, so it looks like a sensible way forward.”

In Malvern the waiting list is 861, of which four per cent – 34 people – are immigrants, while in 2011/12 foreign nationals took 2.4 per cent of the new lets.

Wychavon has a waiting list of 4,781 – of which 215 people, or 4.5 per cent, are immigrants.

An immigrant is classed as someone who has citizenship in one country, but enters a different one to set up permanent residence.

Those from outside the UK are barred from claiming most benefits until they have secured indefinite leave to remain here, but EU immigrants can claim.