The mass migration agenda imposed upon Britain by both Westminster establishment parties has significantly increased the cost of rent in England, according to analysis from a think tank.
A report from Onward, which studied the impact of migration on the housing market since the gates were first opened in 2001 by the left-wing Labour Party government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, found that rents have increased by £132 per month on average in England as a direct result of immigration.
The analysis found that the impact of migration was even more pronounced in the capital city of London, which Onward claimed experienced a £216 per month increase since 2001. This, the think tank said, would have had a cumulative impact on the average renter in London of £20,975 in nominal terms since then.
The estimates were based on a model that accounted for other impacts on the rental market, such as income growth and cultural shifts.
“It operates on the assumption that, aside from net migration, all other factors have evolved identically across scenarios, enabling the model to calculate the rent differences between the actual data and counterfactual no net migration scenarios,” Onward said.
According to their model, immigration resulted in a ten per cent increase in rents since 2001, a six per cent increase since the “rapid rise in net migration” following 2014, and a 3.7 per cent increase following the 2021 “Boris Wave” of immigration after former PM Boris Johnson further liberalised immigration law following Brexit, despite having campaigned on lowering immigration.
The report found that “observed rent, or the actual growth in rent, has exceeded modelled counterfactuals assuming zero net migration from 2001, 2014, and 2021.”
The think tank acknowledged that the government has “consistently” failed to hit targets for houses built, further exacerbating the crisis.
However, this did not account for all of the recorded increases in rent, with demand being noticeably impacted by the estimated 5.8 million migrants who settled in England since 2001, the think tank claimed.
“The Government must confront the reality that high net migration, combined with a housing market that fails to deliver homes where people want to live, is worsening the housing shortage,” Onward said.
The report confirms longstanding criticisms from anti-mass migration campaigners, such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has frequently linked the open borders agenda to the housing crisis, as well as strains on social services.
Onward’s findings were picked up by Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who said on Friday that the report showed that “mass migration is making young people poorer.”
Jenrick was criticised by the Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf, who noted that much of the migration which drove up rents occurred under Conservative Party governments, including the most recent ‘Boris Wave’, which Onward claimed increased rents in £48.11 in England and £78.72 in London since 2021.
Yusuf alleged that Westminster insiders believe Jenrick’s public shift to the right on immigration has only been done to “hurt Reform” and that the so-called Conservatives would once again “go back to the centre, where you came from” if they return to power.
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