Five million new homes need to built over the next 20 years to cope with a population explosion, Government says

FIVE MILLION new homes need to built over the next 20 years to cope with a population explosion, the Government said yesterday.

Ministers blamed sky-high immigration as they predicted the number of households in England will soar from 22.7 million to 28 million by 2039.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said this meant an average of more than 210,000 homes will be needed each year.

It works out at almost one new home every minute.

Net migration accounts for 37 per cent of the forecast increase – a staggering 1.9 million homes. And DCLG admitted this was a conservative forecast.

They are basing their figures on net migration of 170,000 a year – way below the current levels of 330,000.

The rest of the increase is down to Brits living longer, and more people choosing to live on their own.

Migration Watch chair Lord Green said: “These household projections underline the enormous pressure on housing caused by the fastest population growth for nearly a century, two-thirds of it down to immigration.”

He added that under the DCLG’s “high migration scenario” of 233,000 a year, one new home would have to be built every five minutes just to house new arrivals.

He said: “Demand for new housing has constantly been underestimated and unmet.

“It is now crystal clear that, if the housing crisis is to be eased, the new government must get immigration sharply down.”

DCLG predicted a huge population surge in cities and towns across England, with a projected 29 per cent rise in central London by 2039.

The population of Watford is set to rise 30 per cent, with a 35 per cent rise in Corby, Northants and a 15 per cent jump in Boston, Lincs – a rural town where one in ten people are from ‘new’ eastern EU countries.

It said the number of ‘one person households’ is expected to rise by 68,000 a year between now and 2039 – 33 per cent of the total increase. Much of this growth is among older age groups.

The number of households headed by 25 to 34 year-olds is expected to fall by 9,000 a year.

Yesterday’s figures came as the official EU statistics agency said house price inflation in the UK was running at 8 per cent a year – double the European average.

Separately, the Migration Observatory claimed international students contribute almost 13 per cent of university revenues.

Theresa May last year came under intense pressure from George Osborne and Business Secretary Sajid Javid to take students out of the net migration target.