Half of new homes needed to cope with migrant influx

Nearly half of all new homes built in England in the next five years are needed to cope with the influx of migrants, official figures have suggested.

The Government yesterday forecast that high levels of net immigration will lead to the creation of 95,000 new households a year.

But ministers have only set a target of building 1 million new homes in England by 2020, equivalent to 200,000 a year.

This suggests that almost half will be needed to help accomodate the expected arrival of 217,000 migrants annually.

David Cameron is facing criticism for failing to meet his target to reduce net migration to "tens of thousands" as the government struggles to build enough homes to cope with current demands.

The shortage of new homes - the worst since the 1970s - has been blamed for current record house prices with first time buyers increasingly unable to get on the property ladder.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, used his Autumn Statement last month to announce plans to end the "crisis of home ownership in this country.

He doubled the Government’s housing budget and poured money into a series of programmes to boost housebuilding .

But yesterday the Department for Communities and Local Government said net migration will have a "relatively large effect" on the number of new households because it is expected to account for almost half of the rise in population.

Official figures showed that "high" net migration levels of 217,000 a year will be responsible for the formation of an additional 95,000 households a year.

Lord Green of Deddington, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said of the housing forecast: “These figures illustrate the huge impact on housing demand that immigration at current levels will generate.

"This will have serious consequences for our environment and for the whole of our infrastructure.

"It is now absolutely obvious that immigration must be sharply reduced and that must include immigration from the EU.”

The figures came as Civitas, a right-leaning think-tank, warned that mass immigration is reducing the job prospects of British people and depressing wages while placing an "enormous strain" on public services and infrastructure.

Robert Rowthorn, a Cambridge University professor of economics, warned that immigrants have only a marginal economic benefit while putting pressure on schools, hospitals and the number of homes.

He said: "In rich countries many dirty, hard or low status jobs are increasingly occupied by migrants from poorer countries. These are said to be doing the jobs that native workers will not do.

He said: "In rich countries many dirty, hard or low status jobs are increasingly occupied by migrants from poorer countries. These are said to be doing the jobs that native workers will not do.

"In practice this often means that suitable native workers will not do these jobs at the wages and conditions that employers are willing to offer. There are few jobs that natives will not do if conditions are reasonable and wages are sufficiently high.

"This is evident from a country like Finland which has few immigrants and yet seems to function rather well. Moreover, one of the reasons that jobs are low status and unattractive to natives is precisely because pay is low or they are increasingly dominated by migrant labour."

"In practice this often means that suitable native workers will not do these jobs at the wages and conditions that employers are willing to offer. There are few jobs that natives will not do if conditions are reasonable and wages are sufficiently high.”

Professor Rowthorn said that while immigrants can have a positive economic impact in the short term, it is "cancelled out" by the burden on Britain's "infrastructure".

As well as the impact they will have on public services, Professor Rowthorn warns that immigrants will contribute to greater congestion on Britain's roads and railways. He also suggests that a higher

population could lead to water shortages."

Nick Timothy, a former Home Office adviser, claimed earlier this week that the government has given up on tackling immigration because its hopes of balancing the books depend on 1.1million migrants arriving over five years.

A spokesman for the DCLG said: "More than 90 per cent of social housing goes to UK nationals and we have instructed local councils to give greater priority to local residents including a two-year residency test.

“The reality is that the 2008 economic crash devastated the housebuilding industry, leading to the lowest levels of ‘starts’ for any peacetime year since the 1920s.

“We have got Britain building again, with the latest figures showing that new homes are up by 25 per cent over the past year.”

A spokesman for Oxford University's Migration Observatory, which produces independent analysis of migration data, said: "That sounds like about the right balance (of nearly of half of new homes needed to cope with the influx of migrants).

"At the end of the day if you are in a situation where the population is increasing that is obviously going to place more pressure on the housing market.

"At this stage around 50 per cent of population growth in the UK is attributed to migration and that is going to have an impact on the housing market.

"But other factors also have an effect, such as the number of people living in a household."