Britain needs immigration
Michael Giles, communications adviser and journalist
Mike is a journalist and communications adviser. He currently works as a
broadcast journalist for an international television news channel, with a
particular focus on the Middle East. Mike has written articles published
in newspapers including The Times. He also worked as a political adviser
to an M.P, and as a senior communications adviser for a prominent
membership and lobbying organisation.
Twitter - @mikemgiles
Despite a slight upturn in the UK’s economic fortunes recently, Britain remains in
major financial difficulty. Debt has increased massively under the current Tory-led
government (£198 billion more than George Osborne planned in 2010), the deficit
between government income and spending remains high, and wages and social
security payments have reduced in real-terms since 2010. The economy remains
highly unbalanced, and is still heavily dependent on financial services. Much of the
UK is effectively subsidised by London and the South East, with every other region a
net beneficiary of government taxation and spending policy.
“Much of the UK is effectively subsidised by London and the South
East”
In the long-term however, there is a much greater threat. The UK’s population is
ageing dramatically, leaving fewer numbers of working people to effectively pay for
those in retirement. While the current government is introducing some systemic
changes – increasing the retirement age in line with average lifespan (so that no-one
receives a state pension for more than a third of their adult life), and introducing a
flat-rate pension, these changes fail to tackle the symptoms of the problem.
Research indicates that if population demographics continue, the percen tage of
those over 65 will increase from 17.2 percent in 2012, to 26.3 percent in 2062. In
contrast, those aged between 16 and 64 will drop from 64.1 percent to 56.7 percent.
This demographic change cannot be ignored, particularly given its effect on the bill
for older people, with the cost of the state pension to jump from 5.8 percent of GDP
to 8.4 percent over the next 50 years. With the additional pressures of higher health
and social care spending, the nature of this demographic shift is likely to place great
strain on household budgets for decades to come.
The UK also faces a major skills-gap, with 65 percent of business leaders warning that
this is hampering economic growth. Some of the sectors worst affected by this skillsgap include science, technology and engineering. The shortfall created by retirees in
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