In a speech to the House of Commons Henry Smith MP has welcomed the first fall in net migration into the UK since 2008. Official statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that estimated net migration in the UK fell to 216,000 in the year to December 2011, from 252,000 in the year to December 2010, as a raft of recent reforms to the immigration system start to bite.

For the year to June 2012 the number of student visas issued has decreased by 30% compared to the year before.  

Henry said:

“One of the core concerns that local residents raise with me on the doorstep is that of immigration. I know that people were deeply frustrated about the chaos which was the hallmark of our immigration system for too long. For years under Labour immigration was uncontrolled. Net migration to the UK reached as much as three million people - more than twice the population of Birmingham – in under a decade. The system was broken and nothing was being done to fix it. 

“We now have a Government which is doing what is needed to bring immigration under control by introducing a numbers cap for the first time. All the routes of entry into the UK are being tightened up. Economic migration has been capped, bogus students are being turned away, and the rules on family migration are being made more robust.

“We’re now seeing the impact of this. Immigration is still too high but we now have a Government which is determined to bring it down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands. If we do not the population is estimated to grow to over 72 million in just 15 years, or the equivalent of the eight biggest cities outside London having to be built. For Crawley this could mean a population half as much again as we have now, and there is already local pressure on housing, schools and the Health Service.”