Migration Also Contributes to Massive Rent Spike

In addition to driving up rents, immigration has negatively impacted wages and the healthcare system in the United Kingdom.

Illustration (Source: Shutterstock)

Between mid-2021 and the end of 2023, rents rose in Britain by an average of 30 percent, of which migration contributed 11 percent, according to a breakdown from the Capital Economics research firm. Putting the rise into context, the analysis also pointed out that during the entire ten years before the coronavirus pandemic, rent only rose by 26 percent, the V4NA international news agency reported.

The firm noted that while rent traditionally increased roughly in line with wages, with wages rising by 27 percent during the decade before 2021 compared to a 26 percent rent hike,

between mid-2021 and the end of 2023, wages only increased by 17 per cent, compared to the 30 per cent rent spike, adding further fuel to the cost of living crisis in the country,

the Breitbart news portal writes.

the Breitbart news portal writes.

The analysis found that the government’s open borders agenda resulted in additional 430 thousand households seeking to rent properties between mid-2021 and June 2023. With approximately 4.9 million rentals within the country, the influx of foreigners drove up demand by nearly nine percent. Andrew Wishart, the head of the housing service at Capital Economics, told The Telegraph that this was approximately three times the average of 150,000 additional households seeking rentals over every two year period in the preceding decade.

Ben Brindle at the Migration Observatory said:

It just comes back to supply and demand. If you have population growth and the housing stock is not growing as fast, that puts pressure on rents. Migrant home ownership rates tend to be lower, so in terms of where their demand on housing is, it is in the rental sector.

Breitbart also points out that an analysis of rents further discredits the ubiquitous neoliberal narrative that mass migration is a panacea for economic development.

A recent report by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) categorically refuted the idea that mass migration has benefited the British economy to any significant extend. 

While proponents of the dubious link between mass migration and economic prosperity often claim that the government is able to collect more taxes and increase the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) overall, the CPS argues that GDP per capita is a better indicator of the country’s economic health, as it actually reflects the well-being of the average citizen

Citing data put out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the report states that the UK economy grew by just 0.1% last year, even amid record levels of immigration. Yet GDP per capita was minus 0.8 percent, compared with the G7 average of 1.2 percent. This was despite the UK having the second highest G7 population growth, much of it due to mass migration.

In addition to subpar economic outcomes, the report also found that British citizens have been adversely affected by migration because of the burden on social services, in particular the UK’s socialized healthcare system, and the downward pressure on wages, as cheap foreign labor enables employers to pay workers less overall.

Cover photo: Illustration (Source: Shutterstock)