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Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Tuesday, 19 October 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 22 October 2010. It was answered by Lord Stunell (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 22 October 2010 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Housing: Immigrants

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his Department's most recent assessment is of the effects on housing demand of immigration; what equivalent assessments his Department has made since 1997; and if he will make a statement.
Answer

The potential future demand for housing can be informed by CLG's household projections. The latest projections were published on the CLG website in March 2009:"http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/2031households0309"and are based on the 2006-based population projections produced by the Office for National Statistics. They provide a long -term view of the net growth in the number of households given a projected population and previous demographic trends. As such the household projections do not take into account changes in policy or economic circumstances that may have a material effect on future household formation and do not explicitly reflect the different tenure pattern and household formation of migrant groups. The household projections reflect a net position; the number of newly forming households net of those that dissolve. Using the zero net migration population variant it is estimated that net international migration could account, on average, for 40% of the net growth in households in England over the projection period from 2006 to 2031.However, this does not directly equate to the actual effective demand for housing. This will also be determined by factors such as the ability of individual households to meet the cost of housing which is in turn influenced by the wider economic context. These projections also do not take into account the 2008-based population projections, subsequently published by the ONS, which include lower projected levels of net international migration. CLG expect to publish 2008-based household projections in November 2010.Equivalent assessments were made for the household projections from a 2003-base and 2004-base. Using the zero net migration population variant in the 2004-based projections it was estimated that net international migration could account, on average, for around a third of the net growth in households in England to 2026. The equivalent estimate in the 2003-based projections was that net international migration accounted for around a quarter of household growth from 2003 to 2026.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
19099; 516 c928W
Session
2010-12
Transferred
Yes
Subjects
Housing Migrants
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk