Ministers continue to mislead us on housing and migration – EXPRESS COMMENT

THE Department for Communities and Local Government estimates that over the period to 2039 there will be an average increase of 210,000 households a year in England.

Immigrants try to get to Britain houses unbuiltPHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images-Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty

Immigration is not decreasing and the building of new houses is not increasing

But a blistering new report from Migration Watch claims that this is an underestimate. What’s more it asserts that successive governments have misled the British people as to the extent of the pressure that migrant numbers put on housing. To say that two-thirds of housing demand is to do with natural population growth rather than immigration is “entirely false”, argues the campaigning group.

According to Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of Migration Watch, any talk of the housing crisis is always couched in terms of supply (we must build more houses) rather than in terms of demand (the vast numbers of migrants needing somewhere to live). 

“That has to stop. Our paper breaks new ground in daring to point to this central if uncomfortable truth."

Home ownership is what most British people aspire to but it is a dream that has become increasingly hard to realise as migration has driven up demand and house prices.

It is a betrayal of the British people by our leaders.

When mum is not the word: PC madness permeates school forms

A school in south London has been told by the schools adjudicator that it must remove the descriptions "mother" and "father" from its admissions form after a parent complained, arguing that these terms were discriminatory towards separated, step or gay parents. The ruling states: "In the absence of any clarification of the term 'parent' the use of the words 'mother' and 'father' might, as the objector suggests, be taken to imply that the school is restricting its definition."

Well it's a sorry state of affairs when mother and father are forbidden words. And what an unnecessary fuss about nothing. Forms are not always satisfactory for the filler-in because none of us is absolutely of a standard type. They are intended to be suitable for the majority.

Any sensible person will fill in a form as best they can and add a covering letter if necessary. Not difficult is it?

-----------------------

Is Delia Smith cooking her goose?

Delia Smith, the newly made Companion of Honour, had some salty things to say about modern cookery, declaring that she was tired of looking at a plate with "six dots of sauce on it". There are also too many cookbooks she said. Strong words. But readers who swear by their treasured copies of Delia's Complete Cookery Course will have no argument with anything she says.

Mother reads to childMediaForMedical/UIG via Getty

A school in south London has been told to stop using the 'offensive' words mother and father
Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?