Housing and the Leave decision

IN RESPONSE to the query by Alan Willcocks ( Echo February 22) as to whether or not the Brexit result has been taken into account with the increased housing targets for Charnwood, the answer is ‘probably not’. We would naturally expect with reduced immigration that the predictions would take this into account.

However, the HEDNA (Housing and Economic Needs Assessment) for Leicestershire, dated January 2017, is a complex document of 204 pages of research and, amongst other data, examines the immigration trends over a 10 year period between 2005 - 2015, and the 2011 census report, in order to capture impacts of changes in the size and age structure of the population in an area and areas from which people move to it, and how this is expected to influence future migration flows (both in and out).

In examining immigration trends it does not seek to differentiate between international and national migrants.

Put more clearly anyone outside Leicestershire moving into the County, for example from Nottinghamshire are regarded as in-migrants as well as those from overseas.

Whilst the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows projections that international immigration is variable and may well fall (however, advice produced before the Brexit result), the HEDNA report provides no mention of the effect of the impact of Brexit.

Hence the figures may well be flawed.

Joyce Noon Acting Chairman CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) Charnwood District.