UK immigration statistics are wrong claim 3 councils
February 17 2010 by Liam Clifford
"Official figures from UK immigration are at least 10 per cent below what is really happening."
It has been consistently reported by UK immigration and UK Government Ministers that Eastern European workers have been returning home in large numbers, as a result of the economic slowdown, however three councils are today warning that the numbers have been greatly exaggerated and that official population estimates are wrong.
This is resulting in public services such as schools being put under strain, as government spending has ceased to be inline with actual numbers of new arrivals using the services.
The head teacher from a school in Lincolnshire has even said, in an interview with a UK national newspaper, that children from overseas are near to accounting for six in ten pupils at his school.
The three areas that have complained of false information being issued by UK immigration are Boston in Lincolnshire, Slough and Peterborough. All three areas are said to have seen large increases in immigrants from within the EU in recent years and council officials are claiming that the spending on public services is no-longer reflecting the population size.
Sources from all three areas put the official estimates of population size at least 10 per cent below what it really is, Boston’s official figure of 62,000 is said to resemble more like 75,000 and Peterborough officials claim that the statistic of 164,000 is not a true representation and it should be 184,000.
Ruth Bagley, from Slough council said of the UK immigration estimates;
"They may not be arriving as quickly, but the anecdotal evidence is that more people are still coming – and staying. The typical image is of young men who come for two or three years and then go home, but our experience is that people establish themselves and build their families here.”
See the latest Immigration News
