Housing Shortages and Immigration
Conservatives and Labour candidates in particular are very sensitive to the linkage between these two issues. Here are the relevant facts, from Fact Sheet (4), to hammer home to all politicians:
1 Government figures show that net average immigration into the UK over the period 2010-2014 was 215,000 per year. This equates to a house-building requirement of 90,000 per year, using the planners’ own figure of 2.4 people per household. This is 78% of the 115,000 new houses built in 2014.
2 Lord Green’s Migration Watch UK shows that since the advent of the Labour government in 1997, two million out of 2.7 million new households are headed by someone born outside the UK, i.e. 74% of all new households over a period of 18 years to 2015.
3 The natural Increase of the British population (births minus deaths minus emigration) in the period 2010-14: averaged 110,000 per annum. This equates to a new housing demand of only 46,000 dwellings per annum.
4 Net immigration in 2014 alone, at 298,000, was nearly 40% higher than the 5 year average for the Conservative LibDem coalition 2010-2014.
5 Years/months of net immigration at the 2014 rate is equal to the present populations of:
Area | Frequency | Number of times |
---|---|---|
County of Suffolk | every 2½ years | |
City of Cambridge | every 5 months | (over 2 per year) |
Town of Bury St Edmunds | every 50 days | (over 7 per year) |
District of NE Derbyshire | every 4 months | (3 per year) |
City of Sheffield | every 22 months | |
Birmingham | every 3 years 8 months |