The quip "want to pay more in rent? just support mass immigration; diverse one day, homeless the next!" captures a bitter truth laid bare by a June 28, 2025, Breitbart article: mass migration has driven up rent prices in England by 10% since 2001, according to a report from the Onward think tank. This translates to an extra £132 per month for the average renter, with Londoners hit hardest at £216 more per month, a staggering £20,975 cumulative burden since 2001. Aussies will see parallels with your own housing crisis, where migration-driven demand has similarly strained supply. This post delves into the Onward report's findings, the role of migration in England's rent surge, and how this reflects the paternal state's paradox of promising diversity while fostering economic hardship.
The Onward report analyses the housing market since 2001, when Tony Blair's Labour government opened the UK to mass migration, followed by further liberalisation under Boris Johnson's post-Brexit "Boris Wave" in 2021. Key findings include:
•Rent Increases: Migration has caused a 10% rise in rents since 2001, with 6% tied to post-2014 surges and 3.7% to the 2021 wave. In London, this means £216 more per month, or £20,975 over two decades.
•Methodology: The report uses a model comparing actual rent data to a "counterfactual" scenario with zero net migration, isolating migration's impact while accounting for income growth and cultural shifts.
•Migration Scale: An estimated 5.8 million migrants settled in England since 2001, significantly boosting housing demand.
•Housing Shortage: The government's failure to meet housing construction targets has worsened the crisis, with migration amplifying demand against limited supply.
The report aligns with anti-migration arguments from figures like Nigel Farage, who link open borders to housing and service strains. Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick echoed this, stating mass migration is "making young people poorer," though Reform UK's Zia Yusuf criticised Jenrick's party for enabling the "Boris Wave" that added £48.11 to England's rents and £78.72 in London since 2021.
X posts reflect public frustration, amplifying the report's findings:
•@UKHousingWoe: "Mass migration jacked up my rent £200 a month in London. Diversity's great until you're priced out. Thanks, Westminster!" This mirrors your "diverse one day, homeless the next" sentiment, highlighting economic fallout.
•@ReformVoter: "Jenrick cries about migration now, but Tories let in millions. Onward's right—migration screws renters, but don't trust the Cons to fix it." This reflects distrust in establishment parties.
•@LondonLad88: "£20k extra since 2001? No wonder I can't afford a flat. Migration's not the only issue, but it's a big one. Build more houses or close the borders!" This echoes Onward's point about supply shortages.
The sentiment underscores a growing perception that migration-driven demand, coupled with housing failures, is pricing out locals, with little faith in government solutions.
The UK's migration-driven rent crisis ties into the paternal state paradox. The state promotes mass migration as a moral and economic good, recall the 2015 myth of "Syrian doctors," while failing to address its consequences, like housing shortages. This mirrors Australia's own struggles, where high migration (over 500,000 net arrivals in 2023, per the Australian Bureau of Statistics) has driven Sydney and Melbourne rents up 12% and 10% year-on-year, respectively, per Domain reports. Both nations exemplify a state that centralises control, promising diversity and growth but delivering economic strain and dependency.
•Disempowering Citizens: Just as machete bans in Australia and the UK leave citizens defenceless, unchecked migration leaves renters economically vulnerable, unable to afford stable housing. X users like @AussieRenter draw parallels: "In Oz, migration's why I'm paying $800 a week for a shoebox. UK's the same—open borders, closed wallets."
•Failed Promises: The UK government's housing target misses, building only 234,000 homes in 2023 against a 300,000 goal, per The Guardian, echo Australia's shortfall, with 168,000 homes built against a 240,000 target (ABC News). This fuels rent spikes, undermining the state's narrative of migration-driven prosperity.
Suppressed Dissent: As in Germany's speech crime prosecutions, the UK's establishment often dismisses migration critics as xenophobic, stifling debate.
Classical liberalism, rooted in Locke and Mill, values individual agency and equal opportunity. Mass migration, when mismanaged, undermines these by creating economic barriers (skyrocketing rents) and limiting discourse. The UK's failure to balance migration with housing supply violates Locke's principle of governance for the common good, leaving young renters, as Jenrick noted, "poorer." Mill's emphasis on open debate is also stifled when migration critiques are silenced, mirroring Germany's Strafbefehle.
Aussies, are familiar with migration's impact on housing. Australia's high net migration, driven by international students and skilled workers, has pushed rents to record highs, with Sydney's median rent hitting $750/week (Domain, 2025). The UK's crisis feels like a mirror: both nations prioritise migration without infrastructure, leaving locals priced out. An X user (@OzHousingCrisis) noted, "UK or Oz, it's the same: flood the country with migrants, don't build homes, then wonder why rents are insane."
Mass migration, without adequate housing, fuels England's rent crisis, adding £132 monthly to renters' burdens and £216 in London. This reflects the paternal state's paradox, promoting diversity while fostering economic hardship, seen in Australia's own rent spikes and restrictive weapon laws. By prioritising migration over infrastructure, the UK undermines classical liberal principles of fairness and agency, leaving renters on the brink. To fix this, the government must boost housing supply or rethink migration scale, not deflect blame. Rathert deal with the problem petrol will be added to the fire through even more mass immigration.
"The mass migration agenda imposed upon Britain by both Westminster establishment parties has significantly increased the cost of rent in England, according to analysis from a think tank.
A report from Onward, which studied the impact of migration on the housing market since the gates were first opened in 2001 by the left-wing Labour Party government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, found that rents have increased by £132 per month on average in England as a direct result of immigration.
The analysis found that the impact of migration was even more pronounced in the capital city of London, which Onward claimed experienced a £216 per month increase since 2001. This, the think tank said, would have had a cumulative impact on the average renter in London of £20,975 in nominal terms since then.
The estimates were based on a model that accounted for other impacts on the rental market, such as income growth and cultural shifts.
"It operates on the assumption that, aside from net migration, all other factors have evolved identically across scenarios, enabling the model to calculate the rent differences between the actual data and counterfactual no net migration scenarios," Onward said.
According to their model, immigration resulted in a ten per cent increase in rents since 2001, a six per cent increase since the "rapid rise in net migration" following 2014, and a 3.7 per cent increase following the 2021 "Boris Wave" of immigration after former PM Boris Johnson further liberalised immigration law following Brexit, despite having campaigned on lowering immigration.
The report found that "observed rent, or the actual growth in rent, has exceeded modelled counterfactuals assuming zero net migration from 2001, 2014, and 2021."
The think tank acknowledged that the government has "consistently" failed to hit targets for houses built, further exacerbating the crisis.
However, this did not account for all of the recorded increases in rent, with demand being noticeably impacted by the estimated 5.8 million migrants who settled in England since 2001, the think tank claimed.
"The Government must confront the reality that high net migration, combined with a housing market that fails to deliver homes where people want to live, is worsening the housing shortage," Onward said.
The report confirms longstanding criticisms from anti-mass migration campaigners, such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has frequently linked the open borders agenda to the housing crisis, as well as strains on social services.
Onward's findings were picked up by Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, who said on Friday that the report showed that "mass migration is making young people poorer."
Jenrick was criticised by the Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf, who noted that much of the migration which drove up rents occurred under Conservative Party governments, including the most recent 'Boris Wave', which Onward claimed increased rents in £48.11 in England and £78.72 in London since 2021.
Yusuf alleged that Westminster insiders believe Jenrick's public shift to the right on immigration has only been done to "hurt Reform" and that the so-called Conservatives would once again "go back to the centre, where you came from" if they return to power."