This post is to correct an error in Turbo Brexit: and the Case Against Brino, written in 2018.
In assessing the cost of the housing shortfall caused by mass immigration, I pointed out that there was already around a £1trillion shortfall in housing stemming from the estimated shortfall of 4million houses. I then pointed out that that shortfall would be made worse by the May Government agreeing to allow the then estimated 3.8million EU immigrants to remain in the UK.
Using figures from MigrationWatch and taking account that immigrants mostly settle in London and the South East, I arrived at a ballpark figure of around £622billion as the cost of housing that would be allocated to the EU immigrants.
However, official figures now show that those EU immigrants who have applied for settled status in the UK, as per the EU Settlement Scheme, has reached a total 5.18million, thus far. This is more than one-third more than the 2018 estimate. Consequently, the cost of the housing occupied by EU immigrants is around £850billion.
Then there are those EU immigrants who have yet to apply to remain in the UK. Then there are all the other non-EU immigrants. Then there are the illegal immigrants.
According to the ONS, although it is estimated that around 70,000 foreign workers have left during the pandemic, official figures show that EU citizens continue to move to the UK and there is still net migration from the EU. Michael Gove has described the scale of the applications as an ‘a great advertisement’ for the UK.
Is it any wonder that only a quarter of those aged between 25 and 34 on middle incomes now own their own homes – compared to two thirds in 1995? Is it any wonder that there is a massive housing shortage?
I regret that the Turbo Brexit figures were an underestimate.
