Migration Drives Population of London to Record High, Straining Housing Market and Social Services: Report

Crowds of shoppers on Oxford Street in London, UK, on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. The Office fo
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

London’s population has reportedly soared to a record high mostly due to migration, further straining the housing market and social services, an analysis has found.

Research conducted by the Centre for Cities think tank has claimed with “almost certainty” that the population of London is at its highest level in history, in large part due to the waves of new arrivals continuing to come to the city.

While the report found that London’s population decreased by 75,500 between mid-2019 and mid-2021 during the coronavirus lockdowns, this trend has reversed in large part due to the Conservative-in-name-only government’s open-door migration policies enacted following Brexit.

Centre for Cities said that 66,000 people moved to the British capital in 2022 and although numbers for 2023 are not yet available, only 9,000 would have needed to have moved to the city last year to bring the population to a new record of over 10.1 million, The Telegraph reports.

The think tank said that the influx of foreigners was the main driver of the population growth, reporting that 38,170 migrants moved to the city in 2019-20 and 73,660 more came in the following year.

This trend is likely to continue, with net migration to the UK hitting a record 1.2 million over the past two years, despite longstanding pledges from the Tories to reduce immigration; a promise which party bigwigs admitted they never had any intention of fulfilling.

Responding to the report, Migration Watch UK Chairman Alp Mehmet, in comments provided to Breitbart London, said: “London’s population explosion is a direct result of mass and rapid immigration. The government’s promises to ‘take back control’ and reduce numbers have once again been shown to have been hollow.

“While Mayor Sadiq Khan’s passion for migration both adds to the problems Londoners face with housing, health and transport and encourages more people to come. The crises we face in the sectors will not be solved without big cuts in immigration.”

Migration Watch went on to note that the migration population of London, as of 2020, accounted for 35 per cent of all foreigners in the UK. The think tank said that if current projections from the Office of National Statistics of the country adding another 6.1 million foreigners by 2036 hold true, London’s population could surpass 12 million within the next 12 years.

Centre for Cities warned that the growing migrant population in London will put serious strains on the already crowded housing market and further hobble social services such as the National Health Service (NHS).

The chief executive of the Centre for Cities, Andrew Carter, said according to The Telegraph that “London’s infrastructure is creaking under the weight of its population,” arguing that the government should speed up housing and other infrastructure projects to deal with the increasing population.

However, others, have argued that the government should focus on reducing migration, such as Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris Quinney, who previously told Breitbart London that while the mass influx of migrants has benefitted the wealthy, it has resulted in lower wages for the working class and made housing unaffordable.

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