How housing, social care and farming could be hit

House prices have risen

The report states: “There is some evidence that migration has increased house prices.”

Overall the committee believed a one percentage point increase in the share of migrants living in the UK translated to a one per cent rise in house prices. Between 2004 and 2017 the share of new migrants from the European Economic Area increased by 2.6 per cent, which meant the cost of a new home rose by the same.

Social care under threat

The experts warned of being “seriously concerned” about social care, adding: “The sector’s problems are not primarily migrationrelated. A sustainable funding model, paying competitive wages to UK residents, would alleviate many of the recruitment and retention issues.

“Unless social care becomes more desirable to UK workers, migrant workers will be necessary to continue delivering these services.”

Pressure on social housing

Workers coming from Europe are taking up an increasing number of new social housing tenancies, the MAC report found.

There are currently

1.2 million households on the waiting list for social housing in England and the committee warned that a drop in supply had made it harder for those in need.

Special deals for farm workers

The committee warned against regional immigration schemes because it believed the new system should aim to be fair to all.

But it accepted that the agricultural sector was made up of 99 per cent EU workers who worked on a seasonal basis.

As a result, it recommended that the farming sector should be allowed a special EU migration route but that employers should pay extra wages to discourage them from relying too heavily on this route and to encourage them to employ UK nationals instead.