Immigration impact highlighted in report

Last Modified: 17 Oct 2007
Source: ITN

Many UK regions have reported concerns about the impact of immigration on housing, crime and health.

A study on people moving in from Eastern Europe says they are putting pressure on the property market, increasing demand on GPs and adding to tensions in communities.

It comes a day after another study showed migrants contributed about £6 billion to economic growth last year.

The report, to be presented to the Migration Impact Forum (MIF) in Whitehall, found that Sheffield and the East Midlands said there were increased demands on GPs.

And there were also concerns about an increase in low-level crimes such as driving offences, anti-social behaviour and community tensions in the North West, South West and Scotland.

The MIF, chaired by two ministers, was set up in June this year to gather evidence and recommend ways of dealing with challenges raised by immigration across the country.

Immigration minister Liam Byrne admitted it had been a "mistake" to remove exit checks at Britain's borders and said the Government would now start to count people in and out of the country.

Exit checks were dropped in several waves under the previous Conservative government and under Labour from 1997.

Not having access to data on how many people leave the country has made it impossible to estimate how many illegal immigrants are now here.

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