Concerns raised on east European migration

 
By Jim Pickard
 

An influx of Romanians and Bulgarians could make Britain’s housing shortage even worse, a senior cabinet minister has warned.

Eric Pickles, communities secretary, said he had not yet seen reliable estimates of how many people from the two east European accession countries would move to the UK.

But he said councils were taking action to prepare for a possible large increase in their citizens moving to the UK next year when transitional controls end.

In 2004 the last Labour government allowed free migration from EU states including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
 
Its guess that only 13,000 people a year would come to the country soon proved to be a vast underestimate.
 
The government placed temporary curbs on Romanians and Bulgarians in 2005, but these expire in December and cannot be extended under EU law.

Mr Pickles said on Sunday that he did not want to prompt a “scare story” and had asked for more detailed estimates for Bulgarians and Romanians. “The truth is I don’t think anybody entirely knows the number that will come from Bulgaria and Romania.”
 
At the same time the minister pointed out that many Romanians had already settled in east London.

Given the UK housing shortage, any influx from Romania and Bulgaria was going to cause problems, “not just in terms of the housing market but also on social housing markets”, he told the BBC.

Theresa May, home secretary, said in November that the government was looking at limiting access to benefits and the NHS to reduce the “pull factors” that encouraged migrants to come to the UK.
 
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013.