The ‘House of Commons library’ had conducted some research about migration into the UK. That study and research had found that in the coming decade, those migrating to Britain will be responsible for 629,000 new households being formed. The study also raises apprehensions and fears that the migrant population which would be coming will push up and increase the prices of housing. The aforesaid conclusions will, it is expected put some more pressure on Prime Minister, David Cameron to redeem his election pledge which had stated that he would bring down the level of net migration to just ‘tens of thousands’, before next elections are due. Britain has already lifted restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians.
The fears raised by the conclusions are not new. Even some senior ministers of the present conservative government had in the past raised fears that the swamping of migrants would jack up house prices. Many others also see this as a simple ‘demand and supply’ principle being seen in action. Thus the scenario that is being alluded to here is like or akin to ‘more people coming in from abroad while the supply of new houses remains about the same’. So, the general perception about a relative mismatch between demand and supply of houses is exacerbated by the official study conducted by the ‘House of Commons library’.
One of the principal conclusions/forecasts of the report of ‘The House of Commons Library’ is that between 2011 and 2021, more than 1.4 million migrants will arrive in Britain, which is equivalent to the population of 629,000 households. Presently, there are about 320,000 households in the city of Leeds. Thus, it is being said that there will be a shortage of houses/homes since the number of households, those of migrants, mainly, will rise, while the number of homes will remain more or less static. And so, one of the direct consequences could be that the cost of housing, or that of rentals would go up considerably.
Also, largely, this is seen as a matter of broader governmental policy also. The previous government in the UK, was led by the Labour party and it is being accused of having been too liberal or even soft on migration and immigration.
