North-South migration 'a myth'

The need to build more homes in the South of England has not been caused by people moving down from the North, a report has suggested.

Instead it is people moving out of London who are a major cause of pressure on regions close to the capital to expand, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found.

Between 1991 and 1998, only 8% of population growth in the South outside London was due to internal migration from the North, Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

By contrast, movement out of London contributed 50% of the growth.

A further 25% was due to the "natural" increase in the resident population.

Foundation director Richard Best, joint editor of the report, said attempts to block migration from North to South would not help solve the problem of the decline of great cities.

'Nonsense'

He said: "Generally there is no escaping the conclusion that population pressures will remain intense in the southern regions, and that London will be unable to meet all its housing needs within its own boundaries."

Shadow environment secretary Archie Norman said it was "nonsense" to suggest there was no migration from North to South.

"Most of the major cities of the North have experienced population decline in recent years," he said.

The migration is of better-off, often young, people moving from the declining urban centres down to London and then from London to the South East and South West when they start families.

"It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that if we build more houses on countryside in the South East they will be occupied by people moving out of urban centres."

The report, On The Move: The Housing Consequences of Migration, includes recently revised figures from the Office for National Statistics which suggest that an extra 4.3 million households will need homes by 2021.

The population in the South East is expected to grow by 50,000 a year.