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

Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage

A three-year-old girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times this month because of a shortage of beds.

Ella Cotterell was due to have aorta-widening surgery on Monday at the Children’s Hospital, Bristol. But 48 hours beforehand, the operation was cancelled for the third time as all 15 beds in the intensive care unit were occupied, her parents said.

A hospital spokesman said that procedures would be reviewed, but the case highlights a growing problem of cancelled operations in the NHS.

More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last year – 10 per cent more than the previous year.
Latest figures show that the problem persists. At least 43,000 operations were cancelled in the first nine months of 2008-09, with nearly 1,800 patients not being treated within 28 days of their original scheduled date.

Among the excuses for cancellation the previous year were a hospital running out of shavers to prepare patients for surgery, a surgeon going missing following a fire alarm, and a patient’s translator failing to turn up.

Ella needed open heart surgery when she was nine days old to repair her aorta, the body’s main artery, which had not formed properly in the womb.

At 18 months old she suffered a stroke after falling down the stairs at her home and banging her head, temporarily paralysing the left side of her body.

Her parents, Ian Cotterell and Rachel Davis, were told last October that she would need an operation within 12 to 18 months.

Doctors carried out two angioplasties, where small balloons are inserted and inflated to clear a blocked blood vessel, but neither was successful.

Further surgery was initially planned for April 2 but was cancelled because of emergency cases and rearranged for four days later, the couple said. However, the operation was cancelled again for the same reason. continues here