'Immigrants make better tenants because they work harder'

By  Richard Dyson

Former maths teachers Judith and Fergus Wilson, who became "buy-to-let celebrities" before the financial crisis by amassing a portfolio of more than 1,000 properties, have written to tenants on benefits asking them to leave. 

The pair, whose properties are in and around their home town of Ashford in Kent, have also said they will not accept new tenants receiving benefits. Around 200 of their properties are currently let to tenants receiving benefit. 

The story was first reported in Guardian, which quoted Mr Wilson as saying "tenants on benefits are competing with Eastern Europeans who have built up a good enough credit record to rent privately." 

But Judith Wilson, who works with her husband and also oversees the farm on which the couple the live, told the Telegraph: "We're seeing employers becoming more open about [preferring] immigrant workers and I think we have to be more realistic about this, and talk about attitude to work. The truth is immigrants don't mind hard work." 

Mrs Wilson said rising rents, which have outstripped the amount of housing benefit available in many areas, was another problem. "Say someone on benefits is getting £500 allowance for a property where the rent is £600," she said. "It is wrong to encourage people to live in those circumstances, because it will put them at risk of getting into debt. 

"As a landlord you are in a very responsible position. It could be the better thing to do for their sake is to ask them to look elsewhere for accommodation." 

She said the idea that tenants could turn to payday lenders or other sources of costly credit as a means of meeting rent - as has been reported as a growing trend - was "frightening". She added: "As someone who employs labourers on a farm, I can also say this issue is about work ethic. Immigrants don't mind hard work and they are prepared to do what work is required of them." 

The Wilsons became widely-known during the boom years of 2005-2007 as they rapidly grew their buy-to-let empire, once estmiated to be worth as much as £100m. Like other landlords they built up their portfolio by increasing their borrowings as the value of their existing properties grew. It was at one reported they were buying homes at a rate of one per day.