ROOF Blog

A Conservative government would curb immigration to stop the population of the United Kingdom reaching the forecast 70 million, David Cameron said yesterday. He said net migration to the UK each year should be limited to ‘tens of thousands’ rather than ‘hundreds of thousands’, adding: ‘I’m in favour of immigration, we’ve benefited from immigration, but I think the pressures, particularly on our public services, have been very great.’ The number of people migrating to the UK minus those emigrating was 237,000 in 2007 and 163,000 in 2008.

England is receiving a disproportionately high number of immigrants to the UK a cross party group of MPs has found. Between 1991 and 2007, 2.15 million immigrants arrived in England, compared to 105,000 in Scotland, 56,000 for Wales and 27,000 to Northern Ireland. England’s population could increase by nearly 10 million people in the next 20 years, of which seven million will be immigrants.

Nearly one in three households, or eight million people, are seeing their cost of living fall as mortgage bills drop following the cut in base interest rates. This is an increase from just 2 per cent in September last year. Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found however, that there are stark differences among social groups – the biggest drop in the cost of living (3.6 per cent on average) is among the richest fifth of people under 35; whereas millions of others, the elderly in particular are struggling to make ends meet, as they are hit with an annual inflation rate of up to 7 per cent as food and energy costs remain high.

Age Concern has calculated that the rate of ‘pensioner inflation’ is, on average, 10 times higher for pensioners than non-pensioners. A total of 2.5 million pensioners live in poverty before housing costs, and 1.4 million pensioners live in ‘deep’ poverty before housing costs. Age Concern said even the 5 per cent increase in the value of pensions due in April won’t be enough to keep up with inflation increase for the over-70s.

New research by Help the Aged has found that over the next three years a third of sheltered housing schemes will lose their on-site warden and have them replaced with a floating service. The report also outlined the accelerating decline in the availability of sheltered accommodation, which has fallen by 4 per cent in the past five years and is predicted to fall a further 7 per cent in the next three years. Currently around 7 per cent of the retired population lives in sheltered and retirement housing, and the government is planning on removing the ring-fence on funding.

A new report examining the relationship between the environment and schools has found that there are links between housing decline in a neighbourhood and pupil behaviour, truancy, teacher morale and a school’s ability to deliver exam results. The report highlighted that schools in deprived areas are under pressure to play a larger role in the community by hosting services and facilities for families which can detract from teaching, while areas with low quality housing tend to have a transient population which has a negative impact on a school’s ability to meet education standards and promote positive student behaviour.

Almost 1.8 million people have moved to London from abroad in the past decade, the Bank of Scotland has found. However, nearly two million people moved away from the capital to other parts of Britain, the largest number lost to internal migration of any area in the UK. The South East of England was the most popular region for people to move to from elsewhere in the UK, while the North East and North West were the only UK regions to see an overall decline in their population.