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There were two momentous events in the past week. On Wednesday it was the long-in-coming budget. Then on Saturday, Kemi Badenoch was declared winner of the Conservative Party leadership election at the end of a seemingly interminable campaign that for many had been in gestation since the dying days of Boris Johnson’s tenure in Downing Street.
First, the budget. Apart from its mind-blowing size, its eyewatering tax hikes (which we were promised wouldn’t happen) and ballooning public borrowing, what struck us about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s stint at the dispatch box last Wednesday was there wasn’t even a nod in the direction of the issue that the public now regard as one of the most concerning, immigration. The International Monetary Fund may be patting Ms Reeves on the back (for what it’s worth), but what of the impact of the first Labour budget in 14 years on ordinary British people?
What about the massive drain on our resources of immigration and its impact on public finances and the cost of living. With the UK under immense financial strain, Ms Reeves should have paid some attention to the current unsustainable levels of immigration. We simply can’t afford it Chancellor.
Social housing crisis
Today, 20% of social housing in the UK is filled by foreign-born household heads. In cities like London, this figure shoots up above 40%. Over nearly half of London’s social housing is now headed by immigrants. In some boroughs, like Brent and Newham, it’s even higher.
The Deputy Prime Minister has promised to build 1.5million homes during this Parliament with an annual target of 370,000. But if net migration continues at the current rate of 600,000 – with birth and death rates staying roughly the same – we can reasonably expect the population to keep growing at the same pace as it did in 2023. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that even if the government succeeded in getting 1.5 million homes built by the end of this parliament (we think this pie in the sky), have they considered the number of roofs that will be needed to go over the heads of migrants who aren’t even here yet? Meanwhile, all that the Chancellor promised on (affordable) housing was a boost to the current Affordable Homes Programme of £500million for an additional 5,000 homes.
That’ll do it Chancellor. When will governments and HMRC learn that if we want to build enough homes for our population, we have to stem the tide of legal and illegal immigration?
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every week as soon as it is released.