Soaring immigration is making housing crisis worse, warns Michael Gove

Soaring immigration is making housing crisis worse and is putting ‘inevitable pressure’ on public services across Britain, warns Michael Gove

• Michael Gove said net migration is putting pressure on accommodation in UK

Soaring immigration is deepening the housing crisis, Michael Gove warned yesterday.

The Housing Secretary said net migration was putting ‘inevitable pressure’ on public services and accommodation across the country.

And he called for more new properties to be built to help ease the housing crisis after admitting ‘there simply aren’t enough homes’.

Mr Gove told delegates at the National Conservatism Conference in London: ‘If you are looking at pressure on housing, you need to look at it in the round.

‘Britain’s always been a country that has benefited from people of talent arriving here, people fleeing persecution.

Soaring immigration is deepening the housing crisis, Michael Gove (pictured) said yesterday 

‘But the numbers recently have been at a level where there’s an inevitable pressure on housing and on public services.

‘Just as has been the case with longevity, the fact that we’re all living longer is something to celebrate. Inevitably, however, it creates pressure on the land and capital.’

Net migration to the UK was estimated to be at 504,000 in the year to June last year – up 331,000 on the previous 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The latest figures are expected to be published next week, and may show net migration reaches a million, fuelled by large numbers of refugees from Ukraine.

Mr Gove said he did not think the data would show the seven-figure landmark had been reached.

But he said ‘there is a limit’ to how many migrants the country can house.

It follows a speech by the Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday, who argued for a reduction in overall immigration and said those coming to the UK had to integrate, while Rishi Sunak has made stopping small boats crossing the Channel one of his five key priorities as Prime Minister.

The Housing Secretary said net migration was putting ‘inevitable pressure’ on public services and accommodation across the country

It comes after Rishi Sunak made stopping small boats crossing the Channel one of his five key priorities as Prime Minister

Mr Gove said: ‘In a well-functioning housing market, you can’t ignore the pressure that comes from migration.

READ MORE: Tory right turns on Rishi Sunak over immigration as Home Secretary Suella Braverman attacks foreign worker policy and a senior backbencher demands ‘big changes’ while refusing to say PM should lead party into the next election

‘And that is why I think the Prime Minister is absolutely right, and Suella is right.

‘This is a critical part of Brexit, to be able to say: ‘This is the level of migration that as a country we believe is right, this is the level we set, these are the safe routes for people fleeing persecution.’

‘Beyond that there is a limit – every country in the world recognises that it needs to manage these flows, and managing these flows is a challenge for everyone.’

Mr Gove also said he wants to build ‘new neighbourhoods and new settlements that people can belong to’ with more ‘beautiful homes’, in communities that residents take pride in.

But he admitted: ‘It is increasingly difficult to get on the property ladder.’

It comes after former levelling up secretary Simon Clarke criticised the Government decision to drop a housebuilding target, which he said was partly responsible for the Conservatives getting hammered in this month’s local elections.

Mr Clarke argued it was a ‘major mistake’ for Mr Sunak to give in to Nimby (‘not in my back yard’) pressure last year to make the annual target of building 300,000 houses in England advisory rather than mandatory.

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