Tighter immigration control is necessary to tackle the housing crisis and to protect our precious green space. — Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK
The United States is not alone in the fight to reduce the numbers. Immigration-driven population growth in the United Kingdom continues to cause heated tension among parliament members over increasing housing demands due mostly to immigration. According to a study by The Office of National Statistics and reported by Migration Watch UK, demand to bulldoze over more land will require construction of over 100,000 more homes per year, potentially even in the coveted and protected Green Belt areas among and around London suburbs. Migration UK reports:
Immigration is a key factor. 90% of additional households created in England were headed by a person born outside the UK during the decade leading up to 2015 (ONS figures -- summarised in table 2 of paper: "The impact of immigration on housing demand in England")...Around half of this (89,000 homes per year) would be due to additional demand resulting from immigration. We would therefore need to build one home every six minutes, night and day, in order to meet the demands generated by immigration - that's over 240 every 24 hours or ten every hour.
In a January 04 article, Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK states:
When it looks as if about half the homes needed to meet England's soaring housing demand over the next 25 years will be the result of immigration, it is staggering that the political class are virtually silent on the matter. Reducing immigration is essential if the elimination of green space is to be slowed down significantly. When green space goes, it's gone forever.
Partially at the heart of contention lies the protected, yet increasingly coveted Green Belt. These areas around London have been designated as protected for the primary purpose of limiting sprawl and for the preservation of natural open spaces.
Here also in the United States, with immigration accounting for nearly 90% of population growth, the gobbling up of open spaces for development is resulting in similar economic and ecological consequences.
NumbersUSA sprawl studies (Oregon, Texas, Florida and the Piedmont) show just how high the stakes are for what we are losing when Congress continues the decades-long policy of permitting immigration to soar at unsustainable rates for decades.
CHRISTY SHAW is the Member Services Manager for NumbersUSA
