Immigration surge means 'at least 42,000 homes need to be built in London each year to cope with demand'

• A predicted increase of a million foreigners must be matched by new builds
• Report accuses Boris Johnson of misrepresenting reason for capital's boom
• Group says attributing population boom to natural growth was 'nonsense' 

By IAN DRURY FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 03:34 GMT, 16 October 2014 | UPDATED: 10:37 GMT, 16 October 2014

A massive surge in immigration is driving the need for at least 42,000 new homes a year to be built in London, a report warned yesterday.

A damning dossier accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of ‘entirely misrepresenting’ the reason for the capital’s relentlessly rising population – a trend which will lead to unprecedented housing development.

But a predicted increase of a million foreigners over the next 15 years must be matched by the same number of  Londoners being ‘driven’ out of the metropolis, or the ambitious target will be doomed to failure because there will still be too few homes, it warned.

Migrationwatch UK, the immigration think-tank which published the report, said it was ‘sheer nonsense’ for the Greater London Authority’s to claim that the predicted population boom would be caused by natural growth from the city’s ‘youthful population’.

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