If net migration into Britain continues at its current rate of 606,000 a year, the U.K. population will surpass 80 million by 2046 and the government will need to build 18 more cities the size of Birmingham just to keep up with the housing demand, a damning new report has revealed.
A briefing paper published on Thursday by Migration Watch UK estimates Britain would need to build between 6 and 8 million new houses before the mid-century.
Around 233,000 new homes were built in 2021/2022, according to a House of Commons Library report, meaning the U.K. would need to build 50 percent more new homes a year consistently for two decades to meet demand fueled by mass immigration.
The paper highlighted that Britain’s sky-high levels of immigration over the past three decades have “worsened the U.K.’s housing crisis by injecting significant additional demand when there is already insufficient available accommodation.”
It stated the number of private households headed by persons born outside the U.K. more than doubled between 1990 and 2019, increasing from 7 percent of U.K. households in 1990 to 15 percent in 2019.
With the current rate of new arrivals, 15 to 18 cities the size of Birmingham, England’s second-largest city, would need to be built just to cater to newcomers, “not even accounting for the future housing needs of the base population.”
“Where would all of these homes be built? Which areas of natural beauty would fall victim to the bulldozer if this were to occur?” Migration Watch UK asked.
The campaign group recommended immigration into Britain be slashed to a sixth of its current rate in order to address housing concerns.
“To urgently ease congestion strains and crippling pressure on housing, land, community amenities and the environment, it is essential that the government reduces net migration to the UK to less than 100,000 per year.
“As well as helping to ease the housing crisis, this would also protect more of the U.K.’s irreplaceable countryside from being bulldozed and lost forever,” the report added.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed last month to reduce net migration down to the figure he inherited last year, which was in the region of 500,000, still five times the recommended figure in Migration Watch UK’s report.
A government spokesperson responded to the report’s publication insisting that net migration is currently so high only due to “the U.K.’s action to welcome those from Ukraine and Hong Kong and international students returning after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While net migration remains at a record high, we do not recognize the estimates in this report and there are signs that net migration could fall over the coming year.
“The government remains committed to delivering 300,000 new homes per year and we are investing £11.5 billion to build the affordable, quality homes this country needs. We have delivered over 2 million new homes since 2010,” they added.
