Commenting, Lord Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said:
“These figures will be extremely disappointing for the public. The additional pressure on housing and public services is clearly unmanageable.
Those who never wanted to see net migration brought down will now claim that efforts to reduce numbers should be abandoned. On the contrary, this outcome is a wakeup call to redouble efforts to tackle mass immigration.
If political leaders are content with net migration of 300,000, they should say so. Otherwise they should pledge to continue with a target and set out policies to achieve it. One major issue is non-EU students who are arriving at an average of 150,000 a year but only 50,000 a year are leaving.
A problem as serious as this requires serious money. We call on all political parties to double the resources available for immigration control, which now account for only 0.25% of government expenditure.”