The latest population estimate from Oxford University makes clear the role of immigration in changing the shape of London.
The University’s Migration Observatory estimates that England’s population has risen by 565,000 since 2011, largely thanks to migrants, two-thirds of whom have come from within the EU. The analysis also suggests that these changes have been most marked in the capital: almost 3.2 million of London’s 8.6 million population are now foreign born — 200,000 more than at the 2011 census.
Those numbers are one reason for London’s extraordinary economic recovery. The impact of immigrants at every level of the London labour market, from cleaners to bankers, and as business owners, has been enormous. Yet that also brings challenges in terms of public services. Scenes like the crush at Oxford Circus last night highlight the race to expand the city’s infrastructure: commuters have been displaced to Oxford Circus by work on Crossrail at Tottenham Court Road.
Despite the inconvenience now, it will be worth it when Crossrail opens in 2018. Yet we need Crossrail and Tube upgrades simply to keep running on the spot: even with Crossrail, Transport for London’s projections show severe overcrowding from the late 2020s. This is why we have to plan ambitiously now, pushing ahead with Crossrail 2, the planned Tottenham-to-Wimbledon link, and with the Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham and beyond. Meanwhile, the challenges for other public services from schools to hospitals are every bit as urgent.
It would be foolish to claim that mass immigration presents no problems. Yet as London shows, migrants also bring our city great benefits. The answer is not to bury our heads in the sand, as do some who seek to play politics with immigration: it is to rise to the challenges at the same time as profiting from this proof of our city’s global success. London can do it.
London’s empty homes
Simon Hughes MP’s suggestion that councils take over London flats left empty by foreign investors is a measure of the anger aroused in the capital by the influx of such wealthy buyers. The minister and Liberal-Democrat veteran is proposing that councils be given expanded powers to seize control of properties left empty for more than six months, renting them out to ease the capital’s housing crisis. He is right to identify the issue as a problem, though to be fair he does not believe that it is the main cause of the housing crisis. But his proposal is also wrong-headed.
Part of London’s appeal to foreigners, wealthy or not, is the strength here of the rule of law — not guaranteed in many countries. Draconian measures to seize properties — even if only to rent them out — will ultimately do London’s reputation no good. But in any case, foreign buyers are not the main problem, making up a small proportion of purchases even in expensive boroughs. And the only real solution to the crisis is to build dramatically more homes. Other measures, such as Hughes’s suggestion that at least half of new housing in each borough should be affordable, would also help. Seizing foreigners’ homes would not.
Helping veterans
The latest surge in donations to this paper’s Homeless Veterans appeal takes the total raised to an astonishing £1 million. A £300,000 donation from Lloyds Bank took the total to our target. It is an incredible achievement — and via our partners, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and Veterans Aid, will give real help to these unfortunate men and women who served their country so faithfully.
