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.
In comments made after the Bank of England held rates at 5.25pc for a sixth consecutive meeting on Thursday, Mr Pill said: “The population is growing.
“To some extent, the rents are really a reflection of supply and demand factors [and] reflect things that aren’t to do with monetary policy.”
A shortage of houses stems from delays in the planning sector, Mr Pill said, which has long been a source of concern for Britain’s biggest developers.
By arguing that monetary policy is not to blame for the housing crisis, he pushed responsibility towards politicians.
He added: “We don’t really build enough houses in this country. And the reason we don’t build enough houses or housing in this country is in large part [because] there’s a lot of issues around planning and so forth.
“So there’s a restraint on supply, which I think probably is not coming from monetary policy, it’s coming from other policy choices.
“And at the same time that is facing – and increasingly so – in recent times, increasing demand.”
His comments come after Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s Governor, has previously said that higher taxes have forced landlords to sell their properties in the face of higher interest rates.
This has increased financial pressures on tenants by driving up rents.
UK Finance data show the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears more than doubled in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Mr Pill admitted that “incentives” for landlords to rent out properties were reduced by higher borrowing costs, but added that higher rates had also made investing in other assets more attractive.
A report by the Centre for Policy Studies this week warned that record levels of immigration had failed to boost the economy while making the housing crisis worse.
The report, which was backed by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, said migration now accounted for around 89pc of the 1.34m increase in England’s “housing deficit”.
This represents the number of homes the country has underbuilt in the last 10 years.
Calm_Error153 on
Bring 600k, build ~~100k 40k~~ 133k , let the 500k fight on the existing stock.
Profit (if you were owner prior)
Edit: Checked the numbers again and its 133k
Figures released by the National House Building Council (NHBC), the UK’s largest provider of new home warranties and insurance, show **133,213 new homes were completed in 2023**, down 12% on 2022 (151,308)
Guys. I know you dont want to think that immigration might have negative impacts. Just think how bad the traffic is going to be.
MrPloppyHead on
As opposed to 14 years of incompetent government strategy? I suppose all we will get from now until the election is a mountain of immigration misinformation an culture war bullshit from the right wing media.
Immigration is not feeling the housing crisis. Sitting in your arse and letting self interested house building companies determine government policy does though.
SoggyWotsits on
It says we don’t build enough houses, but everywhere you look green space is being concreted over to do just that. Small villages are bursting at the seams with no increase in doctors or school spaces. Better that we pick and choose the best and brightest to come here, rather than anyone who fancies it and their entire family.
Effective-Ad-6460 on
Yeah because we are going to trust a guy paid by the banks …. mhm for sure
Nothing to do with politicians systematically dismantling the country to benefit their own bank accounts
FaceMace87 on
I feel like articles like this are wasted on this sub, according to many here everything else is to blame for Britain’s problems apart from rampant immigration.
GorgieRules1874 on
It’s clearly contributing yes. Doesn’t take a genius to work that out.
luxway on
Says the guy who doubled all our mortgage/rent costs
Apprehensive_Bus_543 on
I didn’t hear a single landlord say they were putting up the rent due to immigration. Increase in mortgage rates was all I ever heard.
StatisticianOwn9953 on
They issue north of one million visas every year and put all their effort into getting people to pay attention to tens of thousands of people coming over on small boats. You couldn’t make up this level of audacity. The Tories think their constituents are thick as shit, and they are right!
tomzephy on
It’s almost as if people have been saying this would happen for the last 10 years and casually waved off as being racist by the progressive 18-21 year olds who think living in a shoebox in London is cool and trendy
JaffaCakeScoffer on
Everyone knows this is the case but it’s not socially acceptable to talk about it.
Away-Activity-469 on
There was me thinking it was successive governments harnessing the votes of homeowners with the promise of ever increasing house values.
If an immigrant had enough money left after paying the traffickers to buy a house, they’d have enough cash to pay the tories for a passport and a seat in the Lords.
Illustrious_Bat_6971 on
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again……putting any political view aside, where are we going to put these people. We have a housing shortage.
Do the maths, it doesn’t add up.
HedgehogBotherer on
Well fucking DUH!
More people, fewer houses .. doesn’t take a genius does it.
ParticularAd4371 on
lol try saying that while ignoring the price of houses…
Haunting-Salary208 on
Simply put this issue isn’t down to one factor. Too many people seem to forget that
Ready_Maybe on
So BoE held rates for the 6th time and decided to blame immigrants.
Immigrants can’t afford houses to push their prices so high. You could have a billion poor immigrants coming in, but none of them are offering 5 digits above asking, getting approved for mortgages or even paying sky high rental rates. The sky high costs of housing is all on BoE.
sbos_ on
Go to politics sub and you will get downvoted -1000.
The issue is clear in everyone’s face. Just denying it. NHS will survive without them. It did before and it will again
Appropriate-Divide64 on
It’s a factor, but let’s not pretend there aren’t a bunch of other factors. The problem is that this is pretty much the only cause people talk about, forgetting about the property investment / landlordism boom and selling off the social housing stock without replacing it.
Disillusioned_Pleb01 on
But thats why Brexit was voted for, mr farage in 2015 was telling us we were at breaking point.
Illustrious-Engine23 on
It’s going to be a factor but it’s stupid to ignore a number of massive factors contributing.
buy to let, landlords with property empires, banks buying up housing stock, home builders reducing building rates, NIMBys ext, inflation/ interest rates.
Blaming immigrants is always going to be the best way to deflect blame.
fuscator on
This is easy to settle one way or another. Take net immigration – deaths + births (in other words population growth) and compare it to the amount of properties built.
Can anyone actually do that? Is anyone willing to just stick to the bare facts rather than what they want to believe?
So far, I don’t think so. Every discussion on this is just a bunch of people shouting one way or the other.
Avinnicc1 on
Houses need to be built but the reason for that should be to increase the supply of houses and make them cheaper for the people here rather than to take off “some” of the pressure that increased demand thanks to immigration is causing.
And here is something no one wants to hear, there is a limit to the houses you can built in this densely populated land before quality of life starts to drop, you need to work both ways
ElementalEffects on
Well this is obvious to anyone with a few brain cells on active duty. But thanks for having the bravery to state it as a powerful public figure, like me and a decent sized chunk of other people he must have known this for at least a decade.
Now will any politician commit to doing anything about it? Looking back at every year since 97…probably not.
27 Comments
Article text –
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.
In comments made after the Bank of England held rates at 5.25pc for a sixth consecutive meeting on Thursday, Mr Pill said: “The population is growing.
“To some extent, the rents are really a reflection of supply and demand factors [and] reflect things that aren’t to do with monetary policy.”
A shortage of houses stems from delays in the planning sector, Mr Pill said, which has long been a source of concern for Britain’s biggest developers.
By arguing that monetary policy is not to blame for the housing crisis, he pushed responsibility towards politicians.
He added: “We don’t really build enough houses in this country. And the reason we don’t build enough houses or housing in this country is in large part [because] there’s a lot of issues around planning and so forth.
“So there’s a restraint on supply, which I think probably is not coming from monetary policy, it’s coming from other policy choices.
“And at the same time that is facing – and increasingly so – in recent times, increasing demand.”
His comments come after Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s Governor, has previously said that higher taxes have forced landlords to sell their properties in the face of higher interest rates.
This has increased financial pressures on tenants by driving up rents.
UK Finance data show the number of buy-to-let mortgages in arrears more than doubled in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Mr Pill admitted that “incentives” for landlords to rent out properties were reduced by higher borrowing costs, but added that higher rates had also made investing in other assets more attractive.
A report by the Centre for Policy Studies this week warned that record levels of immigration had failed to boost the economy while making the housing crisis worse.
The report, which was backed by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, said migration now accounted for around 89pc of the 1.34m increase in England’s “housing deficit”.
This represents the number of homes the country has underbuilt in the last 10 years.
Bring 600k, build ~~100k 40k~~ 133k , let the 500k fight on the existing stock.
Profit (if you were owner prior)
Edit: Checked the numbers again and its 133k
Figures released by the National House Building Council (NHBC), the UK’s largest provider of new home warranties and insurance, show **133,213 new homes were completed in 2023**, down 12% on 2022 (151,308)
[Source with a graph](https://www.nhbc.co.uk/media-centre/industry-news/2024/02/06/record-numbers-of-affordable-homes-completed-in-2023-as-private-house-building-slows#:~:text=Figures%20released%20by%20the%20National,%25%20on%202022%20(151%2C308))
The wokerati will be branding him a racist next.
That should fix it eh?
cant get a house, cant get a doctor, cant get a dentist, cant build a train line.
ONS predicts 6 million migrants over the next 10 years
[look](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68139947#:~:text=The%20Office%20for%20National%20Statistics,500%2C000%20more%20births%20than%20deaths)
Guys. I know you dont want to think that immigration might have negative impacts. Just think how bad the traffic is going to be.
As opposed to 14 years of incompetent government strategy? I suppose all we will get from now until the election is a mountain of immigration misinformation an culture war bullshit from the right wing media.
Immigration is not feeling the housing crisis. Sitting in your arse and letting self interested house building companies determine government policy does though.
It says we don’t build enough houses, but everywhere you look green space is being concreted over to do just that. Small villages are bursting at the seams with no increase in doctors or school spaces. Better that we pick and choose the best and brightest to come here, rather than anyone who fancies it and their entire family.
Yeah because we are going to trust a guy paid by the banks …. mhm for sure
Nothing to do with politicians systematically dismantling the country to benefit their own bank accounts
I feel like articles like this are wasted on this sub, according to many here everything else is to blame for Britain’s problems apart from rampant immigration.
It’s clearly contributing yes. Doesn’t take a genius to work that out.
Says the guy who doubled all our mortgage/rent costs
I didn’t hear a single landlord say they were putting up the rent due to immigration. Increase in mortgage rates was all I ever heard.
They issue north of one million visas every year and put all their effort into getting people to pay attention to tens of thousands of people coming over on small boats. You couldn’t make up this level of audacity. The Tories think their constituents are thick as shit, and they are right!
It’s almost as if people have been saying this would happen for the last 10 years and casually waved off as being racist by the progressive 18-21 year olds who think living in a shoebox in London is cool and trendy
Everyone knows this is the case but it’s not socially acceptable to talk about it.
There was me thinking it was successive governments harnessing the votes of homeowners with the promise of ever increasing house values.
If an immigrant had enough money left after paying the traffickers to buy a house, they’d have enough cash to pay the tories for a passport and a seat in the Lords.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again……putting any political view aside, where are we going to put these people. We have a housing shortage.
Do the maths, it doesn’t add up.
Well fucking DUH!
More people, fewer houses .. doesn’t take a genius does it.
lol try saying that while ignoring the price of houses…
Simply put this issue isn’t down to one factor. Too many people seem to forget that
So BoE held rates for the 6th time and decided to blame immigrants.
Immigrants can’t afford houses to push their prices so high. You could have a billion poor immigrants coming in, but none of them are offering 5 digits above asking, getting approved for mortgages or even paying sky high rental rates. The sky high costs of housing is all on BoE.
Go to politics sub and you will get downvoted -1000.
The issue is clear in everyone’s face. Just denying it. NHS will survive without them. It did before and it will again
It’s a factor, but let’s not pretend there aren’t a bunch of other factors. The problem is that this is pretty much the only cause people talk about, forgetting about the property investment / landlordism boom and selling off the social housing stock without replacing it.
But thats why Brexit was voted for, mr farage in 2015 was telling us we were at breaking point.
It’s going to be a factor but it’s stupid to ignore a number of massive factors contributing.
buy to let, landlords with property empires, banks buying up housing stock, home builders reducing building rates, NIMBys ext, inflation/ interest rates.
Blaming immigrants is always going to be the best way to deflect blame.
This is easy to settle one way or another. Take net immigration – deaths + births (in other words population growth) and compare it to the amount of properties built.
Can anyone actually do that? Is anyone willing to just stick to the bare facts rather than what they want to believe?
So far, I don’t think so. Every discussion on this is just a bunch of people shouting one way or the other.
Houses need to be built but the reason for that should be to increase the supply of houses and make them cheaper for the people here rather than to take off “some” of the pressure that increased demand thanks to immigration is causing.
And here is something no one wants to hear, there is a limit to the houses you can built in this densely populated land before quality of life starts to drop, you need to work both ways
Well this is obvious to anyone with a few brain cells on active duty. But thanks for having the bravery to state it as a powerful public figure, like me and a decent sized chunk of other people he must have known this for at least a decade.
Now will any politician commit to doing anything about it? Looking back at every year since 97…probably not.