The Housing Crisis Defined

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/migrant-housing-costs-1bn-055912619.html





The cost of providing social housing for migrants who come to Britain will hit £1 billion a year for the next 25 years, campaigners say.

MigrationWatch UK said 45 extra homes would need to be built every day, the equivalent of 1,400 a month, with each one funded by a public sector grant of around £60,000.

As waiting lists for social housing have increased in England over the last eight years, the campaigners also found that migrants from outside the EU were more likely to live in social housing than those born in the UK.

Just 17% of those born in the UK require social housing, compared with 80% of migrants from Somalia, 49% of those from Turkey and 41% of those from Bangladesh.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: "The impact of immigration on the availability of social housing for British people has been airbrushed out for too long.

"Either the Government must cut immigration very substantially as they have promised or they must invest very large sums in the construction of extra social housing."

Its report found the Government projected that the number of households in England would increase by 232,000 each year to 2033, but would be just 149,000 with no net migration.

This "implies that net immigration over this period will lead to 83,000 additional households each year", the campaign group said.

In its calculation, the report authors assumed that 20% of migrant households will need social housing, "in line with the proportion of migrants who already have social housing tenures now after living for five or more years in the UK" - the equivalent of 16,600 a year or 45 every day.

It also found that social housing units are currently funded "on average with around £60,000 of public sector grant", taking the total cost to about £1 billion a year.
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