London, Jan 14: The British Government will have to build almost two million new homes just to cope with the immigrant influx in the newar future, a Migrationwatch report has said.

The think-tank will present its findings tomorrow to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, which is examining the impact of immigration, after evidence from Immigration Minister Liam Byrne.

For next 18 years 263 houses must go up every day, the equivalent of five cities of the size of Birmingham, it said.

Four in 10 of all new homes will go to new migrants, the report claims.

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of the Migrationwatch, said that immigration levels "are 25 times higher than at any time in nearly a thousand years of our history".

"The economic 'benefits' are trumpeted by the Government at every opportunity,” he added.

Migration into England will grow from 130,000 a year now to 171,500 in 2026, according to the Government's own projections.

Sir Andrew said the country is already very nearly the most crowded in Europe.

"We cannot allow this to continue. Our objective now must be a broad balance between immigration and emigration," he added.

The growth of the annual influx will see the number of new immigrant households rise from 73,000 now to 96,000 in 2026.

New households overall will rise from 223,000 a year to 246,000. New migrant homes will account for 39 per cent of those.

The report concludes: "The overall economic benefit of migration is small and heavily outweighed by the implications of adding 18million to our population in the next 50 years."

The Migrationwatch report also attacks what it calls the Government's "four favourite fibs" on the benefits of immigration.

It dismisses claims that migrants are needed to fill 600,000 job vacancies, because around 900,000 people have come since 2001 but the vacancies remain the same, the Daily Express reported.

It rejects suggestions that immigrants account for eight per cent of the workforce, but contribute 10 per cent of gross domestic product, and attacks claims that immigrant earnings are 13 per cent higher than those of indigenous workers.

And the Lords committee rejected the government claims that British pensions depend on immigrants five years ago, the report says.

The report comes as around a million migrants gather on the coast of Libya planning a sea crossing to Europe, some hoping to head for the UK.

Earlier, the Home Office said “there are legitimate concerns about managing some of the effects of migration on communities. We are listening to these concerns.” (ANI)