UK will need 4m new homes warns peer
IMMIGRATION will be the leading cause of a crisis which will see the UK population soar by 10 million in the next two decades, a major report has concluded.
The report by leading think tank Civitas has called on Theresa May to create a Department for Demography to deal with a population boom which will mean an extra 4.25million new homes will need to be built by 2039.
The report’s author, Tory peer Lord Hodgson, warned that the increase will also create the need for thousands of new hospitals, schools, jobs, leisure facilities, roads and general infrastructure.
The findings come as details have leaked out over the Government’s blueprint to end free movement from the EU and try to bring back control of immigration.
The Civitas report found that the population is growing at a rate of 1,475 people per day which means one house needs to be built every two minutes.
Lord Hodgson warned that demographic changes are “slow burners” and it can take a decade for policy changes to work through.
He attacked the “piecemeal” approach to the problem in Whitehall and said there needs to be a new department dealing with population change. He said: “The department should undertake research into the interaction of the various impacts of population change – particularly the non-economic ones.
“The people of this country are entitled to have laid out before them the range of challenges and opportunities that demographic change will cause. Such a debate should begin sooner rather than later.”
The debate about population growth should look beyond the economic debate and consider “quality of life” arguments previously raised by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, the Tory peer said.