High levels of immigration are fuelling Britain’s housing crisis, according to the Bank of England’s chief economist, who blamed skyrocketing rents on a shortage of properties.
Huw Pill said higher interest rates were not responsible for record hikes in rental costs, which jumped by 9.2pc in the year to March.
He said “quite large increases in immigration” were piling more pressure on Britain’s housing stock, after net migration hit a record-breaking 745,000 in 2022.
The idea that it’s interest rates is crazed – Spud believes it, so, obviously – for an increase in costs does not, in fact, mean an increase in prices that can be charged.
More people chasing the same number of houses, yep, that could do it.
That must be an -istism among the establishment and media! Where would we get all the scientists, engineers and doctors from? The man’s a dead duck…
Indeed, Grist, where will they come from? It appears indigenous students don’t want to be engineers:
http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2024/05/where-will-engineers-come-from.html
Is it ever possible for a phenomenon to have two or more contributory causes?
I would add driving private landlords out of the market, at least those without humungous risk appetites, to the lengthening list of causes of shortage of rental properties.
Once the powers and the media stop arguing over which cause to blame and realise there are several, they can call it a “perfect storm”.
Waidaminnit!
Were we not told that saying immigration puts pressure on housing is racist? The Remainers certainly loudly proclaimed that during and after the Brexit campaign.
Airports work both ways.
Cancel their visas, go door to door, and deport them.
“Huw Pill said higher interest rates were not responsible for record hikes in rental costs, which jumped by 9.2pc in the year to March.
He said “quite large increases in immigration” were piling more pressure on Britain’s housing stock, after net migration hit a record-breaking 745,000 in 2022.”
Is Huw Pill offering us the red pill?
I’m with Steve on this. Round ’em up, move ’em out. Very publicly, so as to encourage the others.
Talking of immigration – spotted this in the Reich:
https://freespeechunion.org/young-afd-politician-convicted-for-publishing-gang-rape-statistics-in-connection-with-afghan-migration/
And:
They have form, and now appear to be aping Castreau…
Yes, as BiG says, the threat of so-called “no-fault evictions” must be a factor. Those landlords who aren’t leaving the market and selling their properties are probably increasing the rent to reflect the additional risk they are required to accept.
PF – I predict many German officials will win the Walter Lübcke Memorial Prize in their faces.
Sam – Yarp, Pakistan deported Afghans, so can we.
Faeser, the Federal Interior Minister, said: “Those who mock the state must deal with a strong state.”
Which doesn’t sound sinister at all….
The mushrooming in university towns since the mid 1990s cannot be overlooked.
“Huw Pill” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
It’s like being back at school. At least his parents didn’t call him Paul Pill, though I dare say classmates did. And if his sports kit was a bit smelly: ‘It’s a Pill pong.’
Landlord licencing is new in the last 5 years in many boroughs. Also, the minimum size for bed-sits regs in 2018, meaning those landlords following the new regs have had to repartition a 6 room HMO into a 4 or a 5. I’m guessing those not following the regs won’t show in the stats.
Can’t consenting adults decide for themselves if a room is too small?
PF said:
“A member of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has had her conviction for incitement to hatred upheld on appeal, after using official statistics to warn that Afghan immigrants are disproportionately liable to commit sexual violence against women and girls.
Judge Halbfas … ruled it was irrelevant for the appeal assessment whether posts formulated in an inciting manner referred to actual facts or not.”
That’s back to Seditious Libel and the Star Chamber:
“ although libel usually requires the statement made to be untrue, the Star Chamber ruled that the truth of a statement that is seditiously libellous was not a consideration … An effective government must command the respect and allegiance of the people. Since any criticism undermines this respect and allegiance, any criticism must contribute towards disorder … publication of the truth is more dangerous for the stability of the state than false libel, since false libel can be proved as untrue.”
A sketchy google failed to reveal (i) Huw Pill’s middle name (though maybe his parents economised on that) (ii) Mr Pill’s schooling.
On (ii): is this likelier to be because he went to a local school no one has ever heard of, or because he went to a posh school which he doesn’t want to admit to, or some other reason?
Yet again I’m reminded of my favourite Stalin quote, ‘You cannot say that. It tells the truth all too plainly.’
Supposedly said when complaining to Ribbentrop about his version of the Nazi-Soviet pact.
The very same Huw Pill less than 12 months ago:
“BOE Chief Economist Says Higher Migration Will Boost UK Economy
“Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said higher-than-expected migration had added 20 basis points to the Bank’s economic growth forecasts, underscoring the UK’s need for workers to fill jobs.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-23/boe-chief-economist-says-higher-migration-will-boost-uk-economy
Our rulers are just trolling us now.
Pill’s middle initial is R.
So at school Huw R Pill must have been a source of joy.
But is it R as in Robert or Richard, or as in Rupert, or as in some Welsh equivalent of Ruaridh? (Other spellings are available.)
“The idea that it’s interest rates is crazed – Spud believes it, so, obviously – for an increase in costs does not, in fact, mean an increase in prices that can be charged.”
The idea is entirely rational, even if Murphy adopts it. Did not food prices go up when energy costs went up? It’s the same thing.
Of course, supply and demand matters too. In some circumstances rising interest rates would reduce demand more than supply.
“Where will engineers come from?” Well, they could use the existing ones that they refuse to employ.
– Round ’em up, move ’em out.
Sorry, Sam, we know the answer is to build all over the countryside.
Till we have built Shitholeistan,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.
I wonder how many times that here, ot at the ASI or the IEA I have read articles about the ‘housing crisis’ which have utterly failed to mention immigration as a factor. Dishonest or craven?
However, let’s be fair, it doesn’t only affect housing but pretty much everything. Crime, politics, the NHS, quality of life in general. But better not discuss it you racist bastard.
@Steve
PF – I predict many German officials will win the Walter Lübcke Memorial Prize in their faces.
Unfortunately I think you’re right.
Two of my kids are fluent German speakers, and have spent a lot of time in Der Fatherland. (One starts work there for a law firm in October.)
I know I’m their dad so I would say that, wouldn’t I, but they’re both striking to look at – pretty 6ft blondes. As a consequence, they get noticed, a lot. Bad enough here, but the shit they get off the non-German ‘Germans’ in Berlin and Munich is frightening, or enraging.
A few years ago, one of them was on a German exchange week in Munich. The girl was half Albanian, half Afghani (and l must say, absolutely lovely when we had her to stay with us on that leg of the exchange).
Both parents obviously muslim. The daughter (and her older sisters) didn’t give a shit about it, which I found heartening.
I asked my daughter what the home was like.
She said the mother was obviously mentally ill, and spent hours atanding at the stove stirring lentils.
The father, an extravagantly-bearded Kush-pyjama-wearing twat, whiled his hours away watching jihadi videos and Al Jazeera on his giant widescreen with several of his brothers or cousins.
On the plus side, all of this has turned my kids to the right, as real life often seems to.
I can’t see any future for Germany (or us, or most western nations) which – to my great regret – doesn’t end in massive bloodshed and truly reprehensible behaviour on the side of whoever wins.
As Steve says, I suspect a few politicians – having fucked around – are about to find out.
Our problems pale beside those of France. At least we get a variety of immigrants, not all of them muslims. French immigrants are almost 100% Arab.
Putting them on boats or planes sounds attractive, but I suspect that their home countries may consider them too “westernised” to accept back.
Perhaps the answer is MOAr tax. Kind of like the jizya but in reverse. Or a fine equivalent to the cost of a university degree for every boatie crossing the channel.
There are lots of ideas, but would any of them work?
Steyn on Sweden
https://www.steynonline.com/14291/malmo-and-me
@philip
There is only one way this ends, unfortunately.
Enoch was right, he just misidentified the relevant parties.
“The idea that it’s interest rates is crazed”
Increasing interest rates decreases supply. So that will increase prices.
@Henry Crun – “Were we not told that saying immigration puts pressure on housing is racist?”
That’s because it almost always is. The pressure on housing is caused by too much demand for the supply. The demand is increased by people having become much wealthier, so unwilling to share accommodation as much as they used to. The supply has been hugely strangled by plannning rules and regulations. Immigration contributes to demand, and the racist part is picking it as the main explanation when you wouldn’t have said that British people having more babies was the problem, showing that it’s not the number of people being objected to but who they are.
The reality is that there is plenty space to build more housing, and (especially with free immigration providing cheap labour) everything needed to provide enough to satisfy demand except for planning rules and the NIMBYs who exploit them.
@Bongo
+ on bedroom size. People shoul be allowed to rent whatever they want and can afford. I rented a cheap 7 ft x 6ft bedroom in a house in Feltham, London in 90’s (£95pm). Perfectly adequate and allowed me to save more towarrds buying a house
.
However, let’s be fair, it doesn’t only affect housing but pretty much everything. Crime, politics, the NHS, quality of life in general. But better not discuss it you racist bastard
+1
Eating a banana in public is now racist and an arrestable offence
@Charles
FO. Having babies wouldn’t increase population by 750,000 per year, especially if we hadn’t imported million of rabbits. As things are now, immigration is circa 1.5 million pa, or over 3,500 Every Day
Unsurprisingly, swivel-eyed open borders fruitcake dismisses the housing demand generated by unlimited immigration.