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The UK’s population is set to rise by 315,000 more immigrants than expected over the next five years, the economics watchdog has warned.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) bumped its net migration forecasts from 240,000 to 315,000 for each year up to 2028 – an increase of 70,000 people, and a 28 per cent increase since its last forecast in Autumn.
The figure takes into account people leaving the country, though the predictions fall a great deal lower than last year’s 670,000.
But the net arrivals would see enough people arriving in the UK to fill a city the size of Doncaster every year.
Home Office visa restrictions would still mean a long-term decrease in net migration despite the predictions bump, the OBR said
PA
Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet said the updated forecast would mean the UK’s population would see an increase of nine million people by 2046, meaning it’s set to rise at a higher rate than it has over the previous 22 years.
Mehmet said increased immigration “will mean massive added pressure on services and housing”, and claimed “neither party is being honest about the scale of immigration and its damaging impact on our economy and society”.
But the OBR said government measures in December to clamp down on legal arrivals, including banning foreign care workers, would mean a long-term decrease in net migration.
It said: “Most of the [Home Office] policies will have been introduced by April 2024, so we expect significantly reduced immigration levels from that point.”
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Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was pleased the OBR had moved away from its “orthodox view” that increased migration was good for the economy
PA
Its chairman Richard Hughes said the statistics were “informed by the latest ONS projections and changes in the visa regime announced late last year”.
In response to the figures, Sir Keir Starmer said the government would only stave off an “even deeper decline” in economic growth thanks to “record levels of migration”.
While former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “I’m very pleased the OBR seems to have shifted away from its orthodox view, having been traditionally that more people coming into the country, largely on low wages, is necessarily a net benefit for the economy.”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pointed to foreign arrivals’ impact on Britain’s workforce – in yesterday’s Budget, he said it would be “morally and economically wrong” to hire overseas workers over Britons.
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