MIGRANTS SPARK HOUSING CRISIS
Now EU tells Britain to build more homes as open borders send population soaring
BRITAIN has been ordered by Brussels to build more houses – to cope with all the EU immigrants. The European Commission warned the UK is heading for an ‘acute’ housing crisis caused by massive population growth.
It admitted that first-time buyers were being hit particularly hard and the situation could worsen, with official projections saying the UK needs at least 220,000 houses a year. But, rather than acknowl- edging the clamour in the UK for stricter border controls to ease demand, the Commission has ordered Britain to ‘take further steps to boost housing supply’.
The demand for more building is contained in a report into Britain’s housing market which was quietly slipped out on Wednesday.
In an exclusive Daily Mail interview, Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling – who uncovered the report – said the ‘nature and character’ of Britain would be changed for ever if we agree to concrete over the country. On another heated day in the referendum debate:
Labour’s shadow Europe minister labelled a voter worried about immigration a ‘horrible racist’,
A senior Tory backbencher called on No10 to stop the vicious personal attacks on Brexit campaigners,
David Cameron cast doubt on whether Boris Johnson really was an Out supporter,
The PM insisted he was proud to be a ‘Eurosceptic’,
And a Daily Mail poll gave the Remain camp an 11-point lead.
The housing revelations follow the news that there are now 2.1million EU workers
in the UK. Some 800,000 citizens arrived last year, many more than previously thought.
Mr Grayling, a leading Brexit campaigner, also called for a change in the rules so that 70,000 EU migrants a year are no longer allowed to move to Britain to trawl for work. They would only be allowed in if they have a job offer.
He said: ‘What we have is the EU telling us we are not building enough houses and yet telling us also that we have to accept unlimited migration from elsewhere in the European Union.
‘There is just a fundamental democratic gap in all of this. We now know that the Treasury’s official document says that there will be three million more migrants by 030. We have got the Office for National Statistics saying that our population is going to rise from 63million to 76million over the next generation. Not all of that is from immigration, but they have always said a substantial part is.
‘So we’re in a position where we are adding a city the size of Newcastle upon Tyne to the United Kingdom every year.’
Mr Grayling said he was not a person who says immigration ‘has always been bad for Britain’. But he added: ‘If we have migration on this scale, the European Commission has put its finger on it: we have to build more and it will change the nature and character of many parts of this country.
‘If I look somebody in the eyes on the doorstep and they say to me that, “I think immigration has been too high and I want to slow it down”, I can’t in the context of EU immigration do anything about it at all.
‘I think in a sovereign and independent country those people should have a say. As long as we stay in the EU, they won’t.’ In Wednesday’s report, the Commission lambasted Britain for its record on house building. It said that ‘housing demand continues to outstrip supply and this is reflected in high and rising house prices.’
It went on: ‘New supply is currently at around 150,000 units per year. According to the UK government’s official projections for medium-term demand … an average of 0,000 households would be formed per year between 01 and 0 1.
‘Population increases may… add to upward pressure on demand.’ Its formal recommendation to the UK was to ‘take further steps to boost housing supply’.
Downing Street tried to play down figures showing that EU workers in the UK are at a record .1million. A spokesman for the Premier said: ‘It is good that we’ve got a growing economy and we’re seeing record numbers of British nationals in employment.’ Ex-Cabinet Minister Liam Fox said ordinary people were aware of EU migration ‘in their daily lives by the lack of school places, the difficulty seeing a GP and competition for housing’.
‘Of course those who fund the Remain campaign – Goldman Sachs, the big banks, the big corporates, the oil companies – don’t really care because they don’t use those services.’