Government sponsored moves to Spain?

It's interesting looking at the crux of our Housing problem. Or should we call it our people problem.

Maybe it's not quite this simple but it almost seems like 380,000 people moved from Spain to UK. The result of this is that there are now 380,000 surplus homes there and a shortage of 380,000 homes here. Looking at it mathematically and logically it makes sense for people to move to Spain. Unfortunately I don't think maths or logic is being used otherwise someone would have solved it.

Similar things have happened with Irish and Polish citizens and several others. Ireland, Poland etc must also have surplus housing and I bet the corresponding number of citizens occupying housing in the UK is a fairly similar contra number.

I'm not moaning about immigration, I'm just looking at the causes. I am of the view that it is more accurate to call it a people problem rather than a housing problem.

After all there must be people here who have left underpopulated countries to come to an overpopulated country and then moan about the lack of housing available.

And that, I would hazard a guess, is also pretty much a massive chunk of the pro-Brexit argument right there in a nutshell. We are only geared up for a set and finite number of *people* (with a reasonable level of variation). It matters not where the hell someone is originally from…a person is a person is a person after all, but it cannot continue indefinitely. You could invite unlimited people into your own home, through choice, pure goodwill or whatever --even sit them down to dinner-- but eventually you'll run out of chairs/food/physical space. Nothing to do with race, nothing to do with immigration per se, nor is it to do with landlords/BTL…just straight-up mathematics, physics & logic.

My mid-80s built local leisure centre was design to accommodate the size of the town/realistic usage with a certain level of future variation & increase. The prices were set to reflect the socio-economic demographic (not particularly wealthy). Consequently, and owing to open-borders EU, it is impossible to get in the gym or book a class due to the exceptional number of Eastern European migrants attending. 1980s planners couldn't account for such an event and neither could our housing market. The difference being that the local authority responsible for building the town's leisure centre had no direct control over migrant numbers, whereas the current and immediate-past Government's could.

This is a large portion of the UK's housing problem and I'm willing to guess a lot of it goes unnoticed in London/the SE because the infrastructure is geared up to handle volume. Little Northern towns, not so much hence the referendum result split).

A nice dream that's not realistically achievable.

a nightmare--not a dream and it is worse in the south

Is the press gagged? Since the referendum there's hardly been a mention about migrants yet we are still a member of the EU so they must still be coming in, even more so! I've nothing against Syrians coming in for what they've been through but now the North Africans are flooding in, next will be the whole world! It's all too much strain on our tax and resources. I now know why our country suffers from floods, it's sinking!

One theory is that migrant scare stories were part of the campaign by such "news" papers as the Express and the Mail to encourage people to vote Leave. Their job is now done. Or are you suggesting that, because we are in the EU, we were and are letting in vast numbers of non-EU citizens? Remember that we are not, have never been and would not have become members of the Schengen agreement.

Leaving the EU will have percisely no effect on immigration by non-EU citizens (other than to increase it, in the case of people coming from anywhere in the world to offer their skill and ability to the UK, replacing the previous EU workers).

Reply to the comment left by "Jerry Jones" at "04/01/2017 - 09:09":

rubbish--UK population is 80+ millions

Reply to the comment left by "terry sullivan" at "04/01/2017 - 09:28":

Sorry, what? I didn't mention the UK population (which the ONS puts at about 65M as of mid-2015, not 80M+).
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration

Real, perceived or whatever...vast swathes of this country are fed up with foreigners of any description coming in. If it means we go short on skills for a time, then so be it. Drawbridge up. House in order. Drawbridge back down. Every. Single. Entrant. Vetted. To. An. Exhaustive. Extent. No benefits. At. All. Ever. As a non-native, you open an account, pay in as you work. Draw down when required. If it runs out...tough.

The difference between EU immigration and non EU is that the former can just pretty much pitch up and start consuming our services. Not necessarily bringing anything to the party. The latter have to apply and prove they can add value.

As a business we have benefited massively from EU immigration and most, if not all, are hard working decent people but it can't go on forever.

Net immigration 300,000 plus for last few years and ongoing- anyone aware of housing, hospital beds, school places being expanded at the same rate. Of course not. They weren't scare stories - just simple maths. Unlimited, no questions asked immigration is utterly irresponsible and indefensible mathematically.

As I understand it there will still be immigration after we leave the EU and I'm sure our population will still increase. Basically because it's nice here, and we're nice people 😉

BUT the big change is that immigration will be controlled. This will give us the chance to get on top of our housing problem / people problem.

Our whole infra structure, housing, schools, roads, hospitals, leisure centres, Doctors etc never had a chance in hell to keep up when it was inundated with UNCONTROLLED inward migration in the millions.

Migration isn't really the right word though, there were no forms, no applications, no big decisions, it was just too easy and too simple. Just like us moving to another city. Lets just pack a bag and hop on a bus and lets give the UK a try, HOPE there's a job there, HOPE there's a house there, HOPE I like it.

I think leaving EU is a good first step in right direction for our Housing / people problem. But this first step could still be years away. Just my unqualified opinion.