Rents Rising At Fastest Rate As UK net migration SOARS to all-time recor...

Rents Rising At Fastest Rate As UK net migration SOARS to all-time record 504,000

 

UK net migration reached a record 504,000 in the year to June, The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports.

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At the same time, the ONS also reports that rents are rising by the fastest rate since records began, despite a slowdown in property sales.

Rents in the private sector have increased by 3.8pc in the 12 months to October 2022 - the biggest annual percentage change since records began in January 2016, according to the ONS rent inflation index.

Across the country, rents rose by the largest annual percentage increase recorded in the East Midlands - up 4.8pc.

London recorded the lowest percentage rise at 3pc, but was still the biggest increase in rents in the capital since July 2016, and based on much higher base rental values.

The median monthly rent was £795 for England, the ONS said.

Rents have been rising following a fall in 2021, largely due to lower demand for rental properties as employees abandoned cities to work from home.

Rental prices have been fuelled by a chronic shortage in available properties and increased demand as workers return to offices and immigration continues rising.

Immigration

The massive increase in net migration is due to people arriving legally from outside the EU, students and the international travel. The arrival of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees and people from Hong Kong added to the figures.

The government has tried to slash net migration - the difference between the numbers entering and leaving the UK – and control immigration in the post-Brexit era.

The former prime minister David Cameron and Theresa May frequently missed the government target to cut net migration to below 100,000. But Boris Johnson dropped the target in favour of ensuring businesses had access to the skills and workers they needed.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who wants to revive the ill-fated target, said the record numbers were "understandable" given the circumstances in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Hong Kong, and the "generosity of the British people".

"But the public rightly expect us to control our borders and we remain committed to reducing migration over time," she said.

Ms Braverman pointed out that the current level of migration was putting pressure on accommodation and housing supply, as well as health, education and other public services.

Business demand more migrants

However, business leaders have called for higher immigration to boost growth and fill millions of job vacancies in the UK.

The number of recorded Asylum applications which includes illegal migrants trafficked in small boats across the English Channel, hit 73,000 in the year to September, around 15% of all those who arrive in the country in any given period.

Migration figures reveal that a large numbers coming here from outside the European Union - 170,000 from Ukraine and 76,000 from Hong Kong under a scheme to resettle people who count as British citizens.

International students

Included in the net migration figures, 277,000 overseas students came to the UK study, double the number of student visas from the previous year – possibly influenced by the lifting of travel restrictions, according to the ONS.

Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford University's politically independent Migration Observatory research unit, told the BBC: "All the forecasts suggested that migration would fall as a result of the post-Brexit immigration scheme, which greatly restricted the options for EU citizens to move to the UK - and indeed, EU net migration remains negative.

"But non-EU migration has risen, primarily not because of the policies designed to replace EU free movement.

"The humanitarian routes for Ukraine and Hong Kong and a rebound in international students have played the largest role in boosting immigration levels.

"These unusually high levels of net migration result from a unique set of circumstances following the war in Ukraine and the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

"We cannot assume they represent a 'new normal', and it would be rash to take major policy decisions based only on these numbers."

Students add billions to the UK economy and should not be considered as ‘migrants’ until such time as they choose to apply for longer term residency or a working visa.

Asylum

Separate figures published by the Home Office reveal that a record 143,000 people are now awaiting an outcome on their asylum claim, thanks to delays to decision-making.

Around 41,000 of them have been waiting for between one and three years for a decision, according to separate research.

In one example of delays, new figures show that just 50 of 7,219 Albanians who arrived by small boats have received a decision on their claim for asylum.

The increase in immigration coincides with soaring rents at a time when the property sales market has slowed and thousands of landlords quit the buy-to-let property market - https://youtu.be/NME3nEu8dAQ

Nationwide providers like Serco have earned millions housing asylum seekers and will work with private landlords.

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