Building Birmingham (every 2 years)

Out of the limelight, on page 10 of the Times today, is the shocking revelation that the UK population rose by the equivalent of a city the size of Bradford last year.  Migration Watch attributes this rise to massive levels of immigration (nearly 2/3 of the increase). If this does not stop, we are told, we will need to build a city the size of Birmingham every 2 years just to keep up.

The leader in the same paper highlights “the glaring imbalance between housing demand and supply that has ruled out home ownership for millions and forced them instead into an overheated private rental sector or on to ever-longer waiting lists for social housing.” We are shamed by the statistic that, “for the past 3 decades Britain’s per-capita rate of new house building has been slower than any other west European country.”  Without reference to the demand side of the equation, the Times bellows that now is not the time for “ideological opposition” and that the quickest way of putting a roof over the heads of those that need them is to start gobbling up the green belt for housing development as soon as possible. Wrong!

The connection between the 2 pieces is blindingly obvious in terms of cause and effect but most politicians seem reluctant to speak about it.  It is perfectly reasonable to ask for how long can we sustain an open door to immigration which requires an unsustainable house-building programme and ever more tax and borrowing for health and social services?  Angela Merkel famously boasted “wir schaffen das.” Most of us, on the receiving end, don’t think we can do it at all – we deserve some honesty!