NEWS DIGEST: 2ND NOVEMBER 2009

01. Official: UK population to hit 70 million by 2029

Population projections published on 21 October by the Office for National Statistics show that the UK population is on course to reach 70 million by 2029 The statistics also show that over two-thirds of the increase in population, from 61 to 70 million, will be due to immigration. This means that immigration will add 7 million to the population – equivalent to 7 cities the size of Birmingham – in the next 25 years.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

On 27 August the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its Migration Statistics Quarterly Report which showed that, according to the International Passenger Survey, the net foreign inflow in the year to December 2008 was 118,000. This is 44 per cent lower than the year to December 2007. These figures are adjusted for other factors before reaching an estimate of net immigration. This figure, likely to be about 150,000 is due to be published on 26 November 2009.

The population projections took account of this yet the population of the UK is still on course to reach 70 million within 25 years.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

Commenting during the following week on how immigration is adding to the UK’s population, the Conservative leader David Cameron was reported in the Daily Mail as repeating his intention to get net immigration back down to the levels it was in the early 1990s.

02. Former adviser reveals secret government immigration agenda

Andrew Neather, a former senior adviser to Tony Blair, David Blunkett and Jack Straw, used his column in the Evening Standard to reveal the secret political agenda which lay behind the Government’s loosening of Britain’s immigration controls.

In the article, he recalls how in 2000 he had written the landmark speech by then Immigration Minister Barbara Roche, calling for a relaxation of immigration controls.

He writes:
“But the earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural. I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended - even if this wasn't its main purpose - to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date. That seemed to me to be a manoeuvre too far.”

The Cross Party Group released the following press release.

The story generated a further response from Mr Neather, coverage in The Daily Telegraph and a response from Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

03. Government’s extra housing would meet immigrants’ demand in a week

On 9 September the Government announced that it would embark on a campaign to build social housing that would be the “biggest of its kind over the last 20 years.”

The Cross Party Group pointed out that the extra housing required for new migrants would fill these 2,000 new social houses in just over one week.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

04. Pressure on primary school places – immigration fuelling demand

In July, the Government announced an extra £200 million in funding to deal with the shortage of reception places. This came as the Local Government Association revealed that a fifth of English local authorities were reporting increased pressure on school places.

The Government made the funding available to all local authorities facing a 15 per cent growth in four and five-year-olds in their area between 2008 and 2011. Schools Secretary Ed Balls cited “local circumstances.”

Much of the reporting mentioned the role of immigration in increasing demand on primary school places. The Cross Party Group said that immigration was a major reason for the pressure on places, pointing out that the number of births to foreign mothers has risen by 65% since 2001 while the number of births to UK born mothers has only risen by 6.4%. In England, the percentage of births to foreign born women has risen from 17.1 per cent in 2001 to 24.0 per cent in 2007.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

In August, Migrationwatch published research which showed that immigration accounts for an extra 67,000 places needed for children of non-UK born parents. The research also showed that this demand will require the spending of £1 billion to build new schools and £200 million annually to fund extra pupils.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

05. ippr report on re-migration

On 5 August, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) published Shall We Stay or Shall We Go? Re-migration trends among Britain’s immigrants. The report quantified and analysed the reasons re-migration from the UK.

The Cross Party Group responded that circular migration was a natural and valuable part of an open economy and stressed that the key issue is the massive net migration of recent years.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

06. Government consults on new Points Based System for citizenship

On 3 August, the Government launched a consultation on a new Points Based System (PBS) for citizenship. This new PBS will for the first time break the link between coming to work in the UK and gaining the almost automatic right to settle – one of the central proposals of the Cross Party Group.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

07. Government finally limits jobs for foreign workers

On 7 September, the Home Secretary announced that he was accepting all the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) recent recommendations designed to restrict jobs going to skilled foreign workers.

These recommendations include extending the period a job has to be advertised in a Jobcentre before it can be offered outside Europe and increasing the minimum salary that will enable qualification as a skilled worker.

The press release from the Cross Party Group can be found here.

More information

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