For Roger Lucas, the owner of a vintage scooter shop in Margate, Britain's housing crisis feels deeply personal. 

The businessman's sister has been stuck on a council housing waiting list for more than two years. 

So when he heard of a plan to use taxpayer funds to convert local properties into temporary housing for asylum seekers, he was understandably furious. 

'My sister is homeless, and she can't find a place to live,' the 59-year-old told the Mail. 'The houses should be for local people - this is wrong.' 

The Home Office has earmarked £100million of funding for the initiative, which would see councils buy existing properties, or refurbish derelict ones, to house asylum seekers previously living in hotels. 

Thanet District Council, which includes Margate, has now joined four others - Peterborough, Brighton and Hove, Hackney, and Powys - in expressing interest in taking part.  

Defenders of the pilot scheme present it as a necessary solution to phase out the use of asylum hotels, and point out that the properties would revert to council use after 10 years. 

But for local people who are bearing the brunt of Britain's cash-strapped public services, it all looks rather different. 

They include a life-long NHS worker, who told how her husband - who has 'paid taxes all his life' - has been forced to go private for a knee operation due to a lack of surgery slots. 

Others revealed the struggles of relatives who have found themselves homeless or without adequate accommodation, including a mother with a three-year-old who has spent three years waiting to be housed. 

Their question: how come ministers are able to find £100million of funding to house asylum seekers, but not local people?

Last year, 1.3 million people were on social housing waiting lists across England – a three per cent increase on 2023 and the highest number since 2014.

In Margate, locals told how the homelessness crisis in their area has reached breaking point - with veterans sleeping in tents or under bus shelters.

As of May last year, Thanet District Council had a waiting list of 1,904 households needing to be rehomed due to factors including homelessness and overcrowding.

Jane Burges, who owns an antique store in Margate, said she feels 'strongly' that struggling locals should take priority over migrants, some of whom would have arrived illegally.

The 63-year-old said residents of the town with nowhere to go are often forced to camp outside her store.

'I feel quite strongly that local people should get priority housing, because any housing in Margate, either to buy or to rent, is very expensive,' she said.

'I don't think it's right. There are homeless people sleeping in bus shelters and tents in the woods - on the seafront there are duvets folded up under the bus shelter.' 

Caroline, 62, said she knows someone who had to go all the way to Chatham - around 43 miles away - to receive emergency accommodation after they couldn't get social housing in Margate.

'This wasn't appropriate because the jobs were here, and schooling was here in Thanet, so obviously going to Chatham just wasn't practical,' she said.

'Again, they're not helping the people who live here.' 

Charles, 68, who owns a second-hand furniture store in Margate, was also against the scheme. 

'I think it's wrong, because people who have lived here for years have been on the list for a long time and they should be put first,' he said. 

'Private accommodation is too expensive for a lot of people.'

However, not all Margate residents believe locals should take priority, with some stressing the importance of trying to help everyone.

Tony, a 52-year-old firefighter, said: 'It's just very difficult isn't it. You've got a lot of everybody with no housing, but everyone should be looked after.'

He also talked about the difficulty workers have staying afloat, adding: 'It's now more beneficial to sit at home with three kids and not work.

'We get no help whereas single parents with three or four kids take what I take and probably half again.'

Peterborough City Council confirmed last week that it has 'expressed an interest' in taking part in the pilot scheme.  

Around 150 male arrivals are currently staying in the city's Dragonfly Hotel, an upmarket B&B previously used for business conferences and housed rowers taking part in international competitions on a nearby 1000m lake. 

The hotel has been a focus of protests, and councillors hope the scheme could see it returned to commercial use. 

Some 2,780 people were on Peterborough City Council's housing waiting list as of September 2024, with the average waiting time for a two- or three-bedroom home an eye-watering two-and-a-half years for the highest priority applicants. 

Peterborough resident Terrence Paling, 74, is staunchly against the housing proposal. 

He said: 'My granddaughter has got a child, who is three now, and she has been waiting for her house for three years. She isn't going to get one is she?

'It will get worse. It's lucky that I own my own home. If they are in a council house they are here to stay. In a hotel, they could stay in the hotel and then go.'

Mr Paling, who has lived in the city for 42 years, said he has not witnessed a direct increase in crime but the surge in asylum seekers in Peterborough might change his long-held routine of walking to and from the pub to watch the football. 

He said: 'I've not had any trouble before, but I probably wouldn't walk home now.' 

The decision to house migrants at the Dragonfly Hotel provided a temporary solution to a problem which has threatened to get out of hand in Peterborough.

Situated opposite an impressive lake, where many aspiring rowers practise each day, the hotel has long been one of the city's nicer spots, but protesters believe the area is rapidly deteriorating. 

During the Mail's visit, asylum seekers could be seen walking around the Dragonfly's pristine lawns, with some riding off on delivery bikes with Just Eat branding.

It emerged last summer that migrants living in asylum seeker hotels across the country are able to find work as delivery drivers for leading courier firms, although the companies in question claim they are cracking down on the problem. 

Sue Betty has lived in Peterborough since she was 10, but said the area was changing amid an influx of asylum seekers.

She said her mother lives next-door to a five-bedroom property where migrants are now housed and they were leaving the place in a worse condition than the five young men who lived there before.

'There's bags of rubbish, there are rats, the back of the house is all full of rubbish,' Ms Betty said. 'I have taken pictures and the council said it is all clear. It isn't. I can see it.

'Then they started putting rubbish in my elderly mother's bin and all the other neighbours. There is rubbish all down the driveway. It is embarrassing. My mum is embarrassed to live where she lives, it was never like that.

'They chuck all the rubbish out of the windows, out of the bedrooms, it is sat in the driveway. A whole bedstead chucked down the driveway.

'It used to be a lovely house but they are not looking after it, remotely. And this has been going on for over two years. It is frustrating. We are paying for this.'

She said the decision to house asylum seekers in council housing penalised those who had spent a long time on waiting lists.

'We have got a lot here,' she added. 'I think it's all very unfair, end of story.'

Debbie Linnane, 68, believes there are now 'too many [asylum seekers] in Peterborough'.

She said: 'They get lumbered here. It is a difficult call. If you put them in housing, then there are other people on the list. They can be on there much longer than three years.

'At least with the hotels, we know where everybody is. Some people integrate okay, everyone is different.

'I live next-door to a lovely Bulgarian with children, who work very hard and we like each other.

'But they work, and that is the difference. It is the people who are not contributing and adding to the welfare costs.'

Ms Linnane worked in the NHS for 24 years before retiring this year.

She revealed her frustration that her husband - who requires knee surgery - has worked all his life but was told there he faced a three-year waiting list for NHS treatment. Instead, he has chosen to go private. 

'He can hardly walk anymore,' she said. 'We have had to fund this privately which is unfair when someone has worked all his life and paid all his taxes.

'We cannot get a doctor's appointment because the influx is too great. It causes divisions in what has been an integrated community.' 

Paul Bristow, Conservative Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said people in the area would be 'incandescent' after hearing of Labour's new policy.

'I get hundreds of emails from people who need access to council housing,' he said.

'We have more asylum seekers than any other place in the East of England. We are a generous city.

'Local people often live in sub-standard, cramped accommodation. To do this [implement the policy] would be morally unacceptable.'

He too said that Peterborough had a tradition of welcoming people from different parts of the world but that this policy was a step too far.

Statistics from June revealed that 321 households were in temporary accommodation across Peterborough.

Meanwhile, there are 334 migrants in dispersal accommodation in the city and another 216 in hotels. 

Christine Cunningham has run the Focus community centre in nearby Dogsthorpe for eight years, organising sport events, disability services, and providing space for people to rent or meet.

She said: 'We have been overwhelmed for a long time. We are a city of immigrants, we were built on it. We are a massive melting pot – but this is a step too far.

'This appears to be housing being provided for the wrong people at the wrong time. A lot of people are very put out and upset.

'Houses are being built specifically for people who aren't from here – but you can't even go on the housing list if you haven't got a connection. So the chance of getting a house or flat here is remote in the extreme anyway.

Labour Cllr Zameer Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities, Poverty and Public Health, said that the city already 'does more than its capacity'. 

'Our priority remains ensuring the Dragonfly Hotel is stood down as soon as possible and ensuring other places pull their weight in supporting asylum seekers,' he said. 

'We have expressed an interest in hearing more about pilot projects being considered by the Government in relation to how the country manages asylum seekers, but as yet there is no commitment for us to take part.

'No pilot is underway in Peterborough. The Government is committed to cleaning up the asylum mess, but that does not mean treating existing residents unfairly.'

Thanet District Council said: 'Thanet District Council has submitted an Expression of Interest for Round 4 of the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF). Once we know the terms of the pilot, which is separate from the LAHF, we will decide whether to take part.'

A government spokesperson said: 'New council housing will not be used by asylum seekers under any circumstances. Asylum seekers are not eligible for social housing.

'This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well underway, with military sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.'

Just Eat said: 'All couriers must have the right to work in the UK. We have substantially strengthened our systems against abuse, with daily facial recognition checks, and checks that are triggered when a new device is used to log in. 

'We continue to work closely with the Home Office and industry partners to ensure our systems are robust and to collaborate on data sharing and enforcement.'