A Brexit supporting Tory Minister has brought to light a new European Union (EU) report demanding the UK builds hundreds of thousands of new homes because “demand continues to outstrip supply” due to mass migration from the EU.
The report, uncovered by Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling, was published on Wednesday by the European Commission, the EU’s unelected executive arm.
Mr. Grayling slammed its findings, telling the Daily Mail that the “nature and character” of the UK would be forever changed if we were forced to rapidly construct so many homes.
Last week it was revealed that EU migration is around 470,000 a year — nearly double what official figures had previously claimed.
“Housing demand continues to outstrip supply and this is reflected in high and rising house prices,” asserts the Commission’s report.
Adding: “New supply is currently at around 150,000 units per year. According to the UK government’s official projections for medium-term demand … an average of 220,000 households would be formed per year between 2012 and 2021.
“Population increases may… add to upward pressure on demand,” it warned, before urging the UK to “take further steps to boost housing supply.”
Downing Street immediately attempted to play down figures that showed EU workers in the UK are at a record 2.1 million. “It is good that we’ve got a growing economy and we’re seeing record numbers of British nationals in employment,” said a Downing Street spokesman.
Mr. Grayling argued that only EU migrants with secure jobs should be allowed into the UK: “What we have is the EU telling us we are not building enough houses and yet telling us also that we have to accept unlimited migration from elsewhere in the European Union.
“There is just a fundamental democratic gap in all of this. We now know that the Treasury’s official document says that there will be three million more migrants by 2030.
“We have got the Office for National Statistics saying that our population is going to rise from 63 million to 76 million over the next generation. Not all of that is from immigration, but they have always said a substantial part is.
“So we’re in a position where we are adding a city the size of Newcastle upon Tyne to the United Kingdom every year.”
The minister claimed that he did not think immigration “has always been bad for Britain.” But he added: “If we have migration on this scale, the European Commission has put its finger on it: we have to build more and it will change the nature and character of many parts of this country.
“If I look somebody in the eyes on the doorstep and they say to me that ‘I think immigration has been too high and I want to slow it down,’ I can’t in the context of EU immigration do anything about it at all.
“I think in a sovereign and independent country those people should have a say. As long as we stay in the EU, they won’t.”
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