How Britain is 10% more crowded after mass immigration
BRITAIN has become almost 10 per cent more crowded following years of mass immigration, an official analysis reveals.
Figures show how the populations of each region have risen since Labour opened the gates to new arrivals at the turn of the century.
The increase has been particularly noticeable in the wealthiest parts of the country, with the capital bearing the brunt.
The figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics measure the average number of people living on each square kilometre of land.
In the Eastern region, numbers have risen by 11.7 per cent, while in London – where there are now more than 5,000 people per sq km – population density soared by 16.6 per cent between 2001 and 2014.
They confirm that the South East of England, which had 465 people for every sq km in 2014, is on track to overtake levels of crowding in the Netherlands. With just over 500 people per sq km, the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe.
One region, the North West, is already more crowded with 506 per sq km. Overall, population density in the UK has risen 9.46 per cent since 2001.
The ONS report comes amid growing concern over the threat of overcrowding in regions that are economically strongest. Parents are increasingly struggling to find local school places for their children in some areas, while there are worries over rising housing costs.
Around two-thirds of population growth over the past two decades is thought to be due to immigration. Across England, the figures showed that numbers for each sq km went up from 379 to 417 between 2001 and 2014, an increase in population density of just over 10 per cent.
This makes England the second most crowded European country – except for tiny Malta – after the Netherlands.
Several towns and cities outside London were found to have more than 4,000 people per sq km, with Portsmouth reaching 5,227. The next most crowded urban areas were Southampton and Luton, both with 4,906.
London had 5,432 people per sq km in 2014. However this is still less crowded that many comparable cities abroad, with the population four times as dense in Paris and twice as dense in New York. This is because they have far more high-rise housing.
Scotland is less crowded than any other country or region in the UK, while the South West is the emptiest region of England. The North East has felt the least pressure from rising population density, with an increase of just 3.04 per cent.
The figures are likely to attract attention in the debate over the EU referendum, as a high proportion of immigration comes from European workers taking advantage of free movement within the bloc. Immigration figures showed 257,000 EU citizens came to Britain to live for more than a year in the 12 months to September.
Lord Green of Deddington, from the MigrationWatch think-tank, said: ‘These figures on population density show the huge impact of Labour’s loss of control of immigration on the different parts of Britain. We still have not caught up in terms of housing, roads or transportation, and there is no sign that we are even making progress towards doing so.’
BRITISH border guards have turned away almost 20 times as many non-EU nationals as European citizens in the past decade, official figures revealed last night.
The shocking data shows how officials seeking to keep out terror suspects, extremists and criminals have had their hands tied by Brussels.
In the last ten years, guards ordered not to impede freedom of movement rules have turned away just 11,000 EU citizens.
In the same period, 200,000 non-EU nationals have been refused entry to the UK.
This is despite the fact that 215million of the 321million visitors to Britain since 2006 were from within the EU.
Under UK law, a person from outside the EU can be stopped from entering the country on the simple grounds that their pres-
THE EU can only be saved from ‘sleepwalking’ into the disaster of conflict between its member states by Britain voting to leave, the Armed Forces minister warned last night.
Interviewed by House magazine, Penny Mordaunt said austerity had created ‘tremendous potential for civil unrest’ across the continent.
She said that, unless the EU’s leaders woke up to the danger by Britain quitting the Brussels club, there could be ‘unrest between cultures, between nations’. ence is ‘not conducive to the public good’. But Brussels diktats state that EU citizens can only be turned away if there is a ‘serious, credible and present threat’ – a far higher threshold binding officials’ hands.
Justice minister Dominic Raab said: ‘EU law has shackled UK border authorities, restricting our power to refuse entry to those who present a danger to the public.
‘We need to leave the EU to exercise proper preventative controls.’
The figures, contained in written Parliamentary answers, put immigration back at the heart of the referendum debate. Earlier this week, Home Secretary Theresa May warned that being in the EU made it ‘harder’ to control immigration.
The EU’s own border agency Frontex has also warned how terrorists, including two of the Paris attackers, were using the continent’s open borders to move around freely.
Tory MP Anne Main, who obtained the figures, said ‘there hasn’t been a clearer demonstration of how little control we have of our borders.
‘When the British public see these figures, they will decide for themselves if we have control of our borders. The fact of the matter is that it’s almost impossible to stop criminals from the continent coming to the UK because of the Free Movement Directive.’
Previously, it was thought ‘ only’ ten times more non-EU citizens were turned away. Last month, a dossier compiled by Leave campaigners listed 50 of the worst foreign criminals who had moved here under free movement rules.
Once here, 45 of them committed serious offences. In total, they were responsible for 14 killings, including nine murders, and 13 sex crimes of which seven were rape. They also carried out robberies, theft, burglaries and drug offences. Yesterday it emerged that Britain’s borders were exposed to terrorists last year after a Home Office computer system screening passengers crashed twice in 48 hours.
The eBorders system, put in place after the 9/11 attacks, ground to a halt in June.
A Home Office spokesman said last night: ‘The UK is not part of the border aspects of Schengen, meaning we retain full control over who enters our country. All passengers entering the UK are checked against police, security and immigration watch lists.’
A large majority of farmers are in favour of leaving the EU, despite National Farmers Union leaders backing Remain, a Farmers Weekly poll found. Some 58 per cent will vote leave, while only 31 per cent plan to opt for Remain. Some 11 per cent are undecided.