Mass immigration - first ever chance for a public debate

Say No to 70 million - petition

We desperately need an open, honest, public debate about mass immigration which the Home Office predicts will boost the UK’s population to 70 million within 20 years - two-thirds of the increase will be due to immigration. Now there is an opportunity to force a public debate by signing an e-petition at No. 10 here, No to 70 million

The petition reads, “Over the past ten years the government has permitted mass immigration despite very strong public opposition reflected in numerous opinion polls.  The petition recognises the benefits that properly controlled immigration could bring to our economy and society, this population increase - the equivalent of building seven cities the size of Birmingham - will have a huge impact both on our quality of life and on our public services, yet the public has never been consulted. So we call on the government to take all necessary steps to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise our population as close to the present level as possible and, certainly, well below 70 million.”

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/19658

Key Facts

1.      Net immigration quadrupled to nearly 200,000 a year between 1997 and 2009. In 2010 it was 239,000. Over 3 million immigrants have arrived since 1997.

2.      Migrants arrive almost every minute; they leave at just over half that rate.

3.      A new home is needed every seven minutes for new migrants.

4.      England is, with the Netherlands, already the most crowded country in Europe

5.      The population of the UK will grow by over 7 million to 70 million in the next 16 years, 5 million due to immigration - that is 5 times the population of Birmingham.

6.      To keep the population of the UK, now 62.3 million, below 70 million, net immigration must be reduced to around 40,000 a year. It would then peak in mid century at about 68 million

250,000 More Homes Needed for Immigrants3 November, 2011
The higher population projections published by the Office of National Statistics last week have implications for the number of new homes required to house future immigrants.
The government’s projections of future households are calculated largely on the basis of the population projections. The most recent were published in November 2010 (based on the 2008 based population projections) and are an important part of the evidence for assessing future housing demand.
The 2008 household projections showed a 27% increase between 2008 and 2033 with an average annual increase of 232,000 households. However, if there had been no net migration the increase would have been only 149,000 a year – so about 83,000 households a year, on average, were expected to result from net migration; that is about 2,075,000 over the period.
The details of international migration to England are not yet available, but an estimate based on the difference between net migration into the UK in the 2010 projection compared with the 2008 projection gives a difference between the two of 569,000 over the next 25 years. This implies that net migration into the UK is now assumed to be some 12.5% higher than in the previous population projections. Multiplying this into the additional household numbers (2,081,000), which are projected solely as a result of migration, in the 2010 household projections, gives an additional 260,000 homes required over the 25 years to 2034/5.

·  2010 Household Projections: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1780763.pdf

·  Latest population projections: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_235886.pdf