Bored as I am of making the case, this non-entity of a story is absolutely central to the immigration debate. The reason there is a perception that we are swamped with immigrants is because they tend to be clustered in small town centres and congregate in clusters as Simon Cooke points out on his blog, and part of this dynamic is Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) which are supposed to be inspected and licensed and managed by councils.They dont do it. Consequently, even if gang labourers were paid minimum wage (yea right), local workers still cannot compete because immigrants can massively undercut on expenses by way of overcrowding HMOs. Councils often wont do anything about it because if they evict they have a statutory obligation to house them, adding to an already acute problem. The overcrowding and consequent crime it brings is what generates a great deal of resentment. Since we cannot usefully militarise the borders and check everyone coming in and out, what we very much can do is properly enforce minimum wage and housing standards if we remove the regulatory barriers standing in the way, namely ECHR rulings. Even IF we leave the EU, we would still have to retain the single market which includes free movement, but not necessary the right to settle. The resultant effect of managing this properly is that native workers can compete, the fiscal rewards (the immigration pull factor) is reduce for immigrants thus we retain openness but slow the flow of people to a manageable level, also ensuring that immigrants are not exploited. Like the grooming issue, the fact it is not managed properly is because it is a nuanced problem requiring a multi-agency approach working from a targeted policy. As much as it is the result of a lack of joined up thinking, it is also a result of local councils being hamstrung by London diktats which are simply unrealisable. It is my view that effective local government is thrice more effective than a quasi-military border force trying to enforce state quotas as Ukip would have it. Even if we could mitigate just a few of the more visible problems, it helps manage perceptions so that people will come to realise that immigration isnt such a big deal and it doesnt really affect them. dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/landlords-turned-west-rhyl-crime-8295631
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:37:29 +0000