The population of the United Kingdom is set to continue growing. Latest official projections show that the number of people living in the country will rise to an estimated 65million in 2016. Further projections could see that rising to an estimated 71million by 2031, and to an estimated 77million in 2051.
A significant amount of that increase is a result of increased inward immigration, in spite of efforts by the government to do everything in their power to curb it. Despite the fact that more people are living longer due to major advances in areas such as health and technology, there have been fears that the increase in population could put further strain on our overstretched public services.
Despite the increase in population, the government has not made any effort to prepare and expand key aspects of public service provision to cope with it. Another problem is that that also hasn’t been any major increases in housebuilding- in fact, the number of properties completed has fallen in real terms since Labour were elected in 1997.
The country desperately needs decent people to put forward sensible proposals together to deal with the population rise. However, at present, there isn’t the political- or moral- will to do them.