Britannia Radio

EWS

IMMIGRANT HOUSING ALERT

WARNING: Frank Field

Sunday April 26,2009

By Chris Moncrieff

 Have your say(10)

HOUSES will have to be built at the rate of one every six minutes for the next 20 years to cope with the number of immigrants arriving in Britain, a Labour MP warned yesterday.

Former minister Frank Field said immigration would by that time account for 70 per cent of population growth – seven million, or the equivalent of seven new Birminghams.

Writing in the parliamentary journal The House, the MP for Birkenhead said: “For many years, probably a generation, immigration has been a no-go area to British politics. Those who have raised the subject have been insulted, abused and, all too often, silenced.”

He pointed out that in 2007, 502,000 migrants arrived in the UK – almost one every minute.

“Net migration – the number of people coming to the UK minus the people leaving – has more than quadrupled since 1997,” he said.

“Our population is officially projected to reach 70 million by 2028 and 80 million in mid-century, with immigration the main driver and the only one that the Government can directly influence.”

Mr Field said the population projections were based on the Government’s own net immigration assumptions. “Cold statistics do not paint the whole picture. Delve beneath ‘seven new Birminghams’ and we see that in the next 20 years, one third of projected household formations will be a result of immigration, meaning we will need to build 260 houses a day for the next 20 years.

“If the Government does not adopt the policy of balanced migration our population is set to rise to a level to which the vast majority of people are strongly opposed.

“They are not opposed to immigrants, but to the present scale of immigration which is bound to have a negative affect on many aspects of life – public services, environment or community cohesion.”