Election Year or Fear!

[Andy_Faber]

Just for clarification. Not disputing that net migration between 2004-23 accounted for 65% of total UK population growth. However it reduced drastically - from 755,300 in the year ending June 2024 to 204,000 - in the first year of the current government.

For the sake of perspective, even that figure of 755,300 only equates to an increase of around 1.1%.

Source: Office for National Statistics. Conclusion: We need a sensible approach to future immigration, of course we do, but it is just wrong to blame immigrants for everything from the housing crisis to the problems facing the health and education services.

I really wasn't trying to turn a discussion on Green housing policy into one on immigration, but the ONS states 'The UK has grown (by3,7m) between 2016 and 2024 primarily driven by high levels of net international migration'. So it might not be the only issue but it IS the big issue.

rA, the percentages are interesting but its the absolute numbers that matter - take your 775,000, that means 'room' has to be found for that number of souls, lets guess 500,000 household units, in a telve month period, and no way can the building industry keep up with that, no way can social housing keepup with that, no way is it sensible to make matters even worse by adopting a policy that removes entirely private rentals when that market would just disappear into the residential market (at a slightly reduced, but still unattainable to the same people, price). A sensible policy would be to encourage an INCREASE private rental to relieve the mess we have now and reduce rents through supply and demand

Swale, your comment about Gt Yarmouth is clearly made without you having been there - in the period 2009 -2025 I visited for three days at a time three times a year, the increase in immigrants and the impact on the town (apart from the Golden Mile) was stark

Just my observations.