The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has reported that the UK population grew by 1% to 68.3 million last year. This is the fastest increase since the 1970s and was driven by net inward migration. If this continues we may need to provide for 20 million more houses by the mid 2040s.
This rate of growth puts an intolerable burden on public services such as the NHS which we are already seeing, on congested roads and railways and big demands on new infrastructure such as the electricity grid which we need just to meet demands for more electrification to drive carbon reduction by the Government.
See Telegraph report for more information: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/08/migration-drives-fastest-population-increase-since-1970s/ or the ONS report: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/latest
I have written several articles in the past on this subject – see for example: https://roliscon.blog/2022/06/29/census-results-a-problem-the-government-is-ignoring/
But the current Government seems to have no clear plan to curb population growth. They may be attacking “illegal migration” but most of the inward migration is people on work visas or family relatives. There are also many “asylum” seekers who are really economic migrants. There are no clear targets or plans for how to stop the population growth which we desperately need. It’s not just Labour politicians who are ignoring this issue but other party leaders. They are always focused on topical or what they perceive as popular issues such as the cost of living without realising that population growth damages the economy, requires more taxation and affects our standard of living. Migrants cost us a great deal to support and need to be discouraged by making the UK a much less attractive destination.
Robert Jenrick seems to have some useful ideas such as withdrawing from the ECHR to avoid frivolous legal challenges by migrants but there should be no financial support to lawyers to challenge decisions on asylum claims or expulsion decisions. Other European countries are making migration much more difficult and we should do the same.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
Roger, a good summary of one of the UK’s major issues that has been ignored by our politicians since Enoch Powell made it too hot to discuss openly. The impact of the huge growth in population on housing, congestion and public services etc is staring us all in the face.