ONE NEW HOUSEHOLD EVERY 2 MINUTES IN MIGRANT BOOM

LABOUR’S immigration policies were denounced as “madness’’ yesterday after an official report highlighted how Britain’s population is expected to soar.

One new household will be formed every two minutes until 2021, almost half of it driven by immigration, according to projections which have been steadily revised upwards in recent years.

Around 70 per cent of the population increase up to 2031 will be due to immigration, according to the Government. By 2021, newcomers will account for nearly four in 10 of the four million new households formed in England and Wales.

Labour MP Frank Field and Conservative Sir Nicholas Soames, chairmen of Parliament’s cross-party Group on Balanced Migration, said: “As we face severe cuts in public spending, it is the politics of madness to continue with immigration policies that will mean us having to provide thousands of new homes for newcomers.

“Not to mention the necessary roads, schools and hospitals on this unprecedented scale, when our own citizens, both black and white, cannot get homes.’’

The figures were spelt out in the Office for National Statistics’ latest Regional Trends report.

It showed that the projected number of households in England and Wales will rise by nearly four million over 15 years, from 21.52 million in 2006 to 25.44 million in 2021.

Of these, more than a million will be in London and the South-east. By 2031, experts forecast there will be a further 2.5 million households in England – a total of 27.82 million.

The Group on Balanced Migration said the Government now envisaged there would be nearly 1.5 million more households in 2021 than it was forecasting just three years ago. In 2006, the Government estimated there would be 24 million households in 2021.

Last year it revised the projection to 24.97 million. Now it believes there will be 25.44 million.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of thinktank Migrationwatch, said: “For years the Government have been in denial about the massive impact of immigration on housing.

“They cannot any longer deny we will have to build a new home every five minutes for the next 15 years just for new immigrants.

“Given the financial crisis that the Government faces, this is absolutely crazy. Where is all the money going to come from to build not only houses but also schools, hospitals and roads that will be needed?”

Tory immigration spokesman Damain Green said: “This is why we propose to establish an annual limit on the number of work permits issued, along the lines of the Australian and American systems.

“This is the best way to bring some control over our immigration numbers.’’ Immigration has spiralled upwards under Labour since 1997. It jumped massively after the Government decided that citizens of 10 eastern and central European countries, which joined the EU in 2004, should be allowed to work in Britain as well as travel here.

This week it emerged that the number of immigrants granted British citizenship had increased by more than half in a year.

A total of 54,615 applications were approved in the first three months of 2009 – 57 per cent more than in the same period last year. If the trend continues, the total this year is likely to reach 220,000, dwarfing the record of 164,540 in 2007. continues here

Four in ten under-20s in London aren't white

Four out of ten young people in London are members of ethnic minorities, it was revealed yesterday.

A government report found that more than 700,000 children and teenagers are classed as non-white, around 40 per cent of the age group in the capital.

At present, just over a third of Londoners of all ages are reckoned to be non-white - but the new figures indicate that this share will grow substantially in the future.



They also point to the way recent waves of immigration have made a bigger impact on London than other parts of the country.

The analysis from the Office for National Statistics said that in the West Midlands, the second most multi-racial area of the country after London, just 19 per cent of children and teenagers are non-white.

The figures were disclosed in Whitehall's annual Regional Trends report.

They drew warnings from migration experts that politicians are taking a risk by ignoring the changing nature of cities and suburbs.


Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch think-tank said: 'This illustrates the massive change that is taking place to our society at a rapid pace and without the indigenous population ever being consulted. 70 per cent of future population increase and 40 per cent of new households will be a result of immigration....

'It is high time that the political class took their heads out of the clouds and responded to the very strong public opinion that wants to bring immigration under control.'

Many of the migrants who have come into Britain in the past ten years have settled in London.

Three London boroughs have had majority ethnic minority populations since the turn of the Millennium - Newham, Tower Hamlets and Brent - and others are likely to see whites become a minority in the near future.

The estimates yesterday put the under-20 ethnic minority population of London at 714,000.

Around 15 per cent of young Londoners are classed as Asian or Asian British, it said, and 14 per cent black or black British.

Lowest populations of ethnic minority youngsters were in the North-East - five per cent of all people under 20 - and in the South-West, at six per cent.

The all-party Balanced Migration group of MPs said that 70 per cent of future population increase and 40 per cent of new households will be a result of immigration. continues here

US whites 'to be minority sooner'

White people are projected to no longer be in the majority in the United States by the year 2042 - eight years sooner than previous projections. 

The US Census Bureau's latest figures - based on birth, death and immigration rates - suggest that minorities will soon make up 55% of the population. 

Hispanics who now make up about 15% will, it says, account for 30% by 2050. 

It is projected that black people will make up 15%, a small increase, while Asians will grow from 4% to 9%. 

White non-Hispanics currently make up about two-thirds of the population, but only 55% of those are aged under five. 

'Aging baby boomers' 

It has long been said that the US is a nation of immigrants but in the past the influx has mainly come from white Europeans, the BBC's Jonathan Beale reports from Washington. 

By the middle of this century, that group will be in the minority for the first time, he notes. 

It is likely that the demographic changes will be experienced right across the country - and no longer confined to urban areas as in the past. 

Overall, the US population is expected to rise from 305 million people to 439 million by the year 2050. 

The white population will also be ageing. The number of people over 85 years old will triple in the next 40 years. 

"The white population is older and very much centred around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution think tank, told the Associated Press. 

"The future of America is epitomised by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future." continues here