Telegraph reports ‘boom’ in ‘Britons’ quitting England for Wales
Stephen Price
A Sunday Telegraph article has highlighted a record high in migrants from England moving to other parts of the UK amid cost of living struggles – with Wales seeing the most dramatic increase.
Discussing newly published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Economics Reporter, Melissa Lawford, shared that net migration out of England to other nations in the UK ‘soared by 53pc’ in the year to June 2023 to hit 31,393.
The levels of internal migration are the highest since comparable data began in 2001-2, excluding the height of the pandemic.
Wales
Wales has seen the most dramatic increase in migration from England, with a 65% increase year on year to 17, 559 – again, a record high save for 2020, standing in stark contrast to the net outflow seen a decade ago.
Using data from Centre for Cities from 2022, Lawson explained that “people are most likely to move to Wales when they are student age; when they are in their early 30s; and aged between 55 and 64”.
Cardiff was the local authority that recorded the highest level of net inward migration in Wales, with concerns from locals voiced regularly over the number of houses being built, who they are being built for, and the impact on local schools, roads and surgeries.
Meanwhile, Scotland saw a more modest increase of 13,900 – a figure 39% higher than before the Covid 19 pandemic.
Lawford sees the current migration trends as economically driven, in contrast to the pandemic ‘race for space’ and escape from England’s cities.
She writes: “Net internal migration out of England surged during the pandemic, when lockdown and the shift to homeworking triggered a race for space, but returned to pre-Covid levels in 2020-21. This suggests that the new rise is not an extended pandemic trend but a fresh response to the cost of living crisis.”
“The year to mid-2023 encompassed the worst of the inflation crisis, which peaked at a 41-year high of 11.1pc in October 2022.
“Rents also soared across the country during this period, while house prices were at their post-pandemic highs.”
Flight
Discussing the starkly different house prices across the UK, along with data from Hamptons and Countrywide Estate Agents, Lawton shared that people moving from London made up 7% of buyers moving into Wales in 2024 so far. This data doesn’t include those renting or moving into, or being allocated, Welsh social housing.
Northern Ireland saw the smallest increase in net migration, falling to a three year low of 39 people.
This data comes as official data showed the largest rise in the UK population on record since 1971 – figures Lawson says ‘masks a major internal movement within the UK population’.
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It’s a modern day invasion. Drip drip drip.
This report suggests that incomers from England are allocated social housing in Wales. That’s a bit rich when we consider the waiting lists within Welsh authorities who move at a snail’s pace to address the needs of local people.
It happens. I see this everyday.
Can you elaborate on that statement please.
Well, I never! With a decent investment pot Wales offers so much, and, as one pioneer from Oxfordshire once told me, “everything here is so cheap”. Note, also, the line on “moving into, or being allocated, Welsh social housing”. Thank heavens that we haven’t got any Welsh people needing housing, and we should also be grateful that our Councils have an abundance of resources.
Last night I sat down and watched an episode of Eastenders which is quite a rare occasion for me. The programme moved from one miserable shouty depressing scene to another for half an hour. If this is an example of the norm in England it’s no wonder they are moving out.
Some years ago we had my mother staying with us to recover from a cataract operation, she had also begun the descent into dementia. We sat her in front of the TV to watch Emmerdale, one of her favourites while we got on with setting up a bed for her in our living room as she couldn’t manage the stairs. Suddenly she said “Why are we shouting at each other?” I had to point out that the shouting was coming from the TV. It seems as if rural Yorkshire is no better than London!
‘Wales has seen the most dramatic increase in migration from England, with a 65% increase year on year …’ We made that move back in 2016. But although my other half and I are both Manchester born and bred, I moved to Wales as a student and stayed on here to live and work for the whole of my 20s and 30s, and my partner spent part of her childhood in Wales as a consequence of her dad’s work. And both of us have gained at least some knowledge of Welsh. So maybe we’re not wholly typical?! And, as an afterthought,… Read more »
Ellis is from Elisedd … Very old Welsh surname
I know! But, perhaps unfortunately, there’s another alternative derivation, from the κοινὴ (imperial Roman era) Greek rendering of the name of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, which was ‘Elias’. I’ve no idea from which of these twin alternatives my surname derives: as far as family memory goes back – which isn’t that far; only to the mid-19th century – my dad’s ancestors on the paternal side all lived in either Manchester or Salford, with just an odd one in Cheshire out towards Warrington. My dad’s dad was a pretty ordinary door-to-door insurance man, a chronic asthmatic with a taste for the… Read more »
Cymru desperately needs to start attracting the working age professional classes, before it is hollowed out to contain either the (diminishing) young, or the (dependant) old.
Why do you think that Bronglais Paediatric Dept is closing? That’s a massive blow to Ceredigion.
But it’s not closing – it’s reducing its service. Don’t make things sound even worse than they are.
“Cymru desperately needs to start attracting the working age professional classes,”
Surely you mean retaining rather than “attracting”
If they 1) Work, 2) respect our language and culture, 3) don’t just come here to spiv off limited public resources, then I’m Ok with this.
You only have to travel to much of the soul-less urban sprawl that is England to understand why they want to change countries, but then we need to regulate our developments so that they’re quality not quantity.
Or retire to Wales and bting their money to spend in Wales and so employ people.
You may find some of the people you describe above may do neither of 1, 2, nor 3! Maybe we should work towards a points system like other countries.
What money, we are told pensioners are poor. Does our NHS get more money for a farmed put aging English population, doubt it. Drain our resources more like. Before you take in the rude culture shock likely to be inflicted
I think that our language and culture need more than mere respect, I would expect people moving into areas where Cymraeg is strongest to learn the language tout suite and actually demonstrate that respect is genuine.
So why wasn’t this factored into other housing issues reports by WG an LA’s, likely more housing used in this migration than 2nd homes or holiday lets by Welsh families.
Colonisation is still live and kicking.
I am an incomer long ago and proud to be called “adopted Welsh”. My concern here is my partner and friends often say they value my good manners and respect for Welsh people and culture. This obviously means they don’t find it standard by other English incomers.
There is an opening for a Croeso a Cymru project to help incomers settle in. Useful information on practical resources locally and advice on how to slow down, where to go for days out, a potted Welsh history – and do’s dont on how to show respect. Could make a good website.
Even better have all economic migrants pass the Life In Wales test – 24 questions covering topics such as Welsh values, history, traditions and everyday life – before they’re granted settled status.
And the test to be taken in Cymraeg!
It’s been tried before. The late Gwynfor Evans promoted a similar scheme in the early 1980s but it was a flop. Those who move here who want to integrate do just that, those who are just seeking to colonise do not, and indeed, resent any attempt to remind them that they are now living in someone else’s country. Personally I would like to see legislation brought in that extends the scope of Section 37 of the 1985 Housing Act to encompass all housing in Cymru, which would mean that anyone wishing to purchase a home would have to pass a… Read more »
I think your sentiments are appreciated Shân, but you do come across as a little naïve. The reason that ‘standard’ English incomers don’t respect Welsh people and Cymraeg is that they tend to think of themselves as somehow superior, though often that’s not conscious, but manifest in their refusal to learn and speak Cymraeg, or even in many cases even to learn how to correctly pronounce the name of the place they live in after having lived there in some cases for years – that’s if they haven’t already changed the name to something meaningless (in the context) in English.… Read more »
“People are most likely to move to Wales when they are student age”
Students come to universities. Who knew?
Yes Alun that’s a useful, logical explanation. Shame you added the snippy bit. Spoiled a nice contribution.
As my name says i live in the Pontypridd area when in town i go into the same cafe and i hear the accents of people talking to others and they all say the same they have moved to this area from social housing in London south east of England to social housing here the councils in England pay money to Welsh councils they also move these families to other parts of England poorer areas of England like the North East or North of England
Same in Gwynedd. These housing associations are complicit in colonisation.
Gwladychu. Wedi ei hyrwyddo gan Lywodraeth Cymru a’r cynlluniau ‘datblygu’ lleol y maent yn rhoi rheidrwydd ar Gynghorau i’w mabwysiadu efo niferoedd enfawr o dai, tra bo ein poblogaeth naturiol yn syrthio. Mae’r gelyn o fewn y gaer.
Now will these English migrants coming over here in there small coupes respect that they are now in another country not an extension of England as seen in Southern Spain where expats open English bars , refuse to engage with the Spanish language & culture, turning it into Blackpool in the sun. Very likely. The history books tell us so. Look, I’m not taring all English with the same brush. We have enough Welsh people in Wales that would happily stab us in the back. And of course there are good English people who love Wales, who want to immerse… Read more »
Diolch am ddeud hynny. Sais dw i, a symudes i yma efo fy mhartner (Cymraes ydy hi) a ddaeth yn ôl i’r wlad ei hen famau. Mae’r iaith wedi dysgu cymaint i mi am y diwylliant, yr hanes, y gwleidyddiaeth ac y tradoddiadau. Byddwn i’n dweud wrth unrhywun sy’n meddwl am symud, plis meddyliwch am ddysgu’r iaith. Dyma’r lleiaf y gallwch chi ei wneud i ddangos parch. Gyda llaw, does neb yn darllen y Telegraph yng Nghynru, siwr?
I thought the Daily Telegraph and it’s right-wing allies believed that wokery, 20mph, rampant anti-English sentiment and the COVID restrictions were putting people off visiting Wales? Now there’s saying there’s an exodus to live in Wales?
Where I’m from you get a lot of older people who have come here to die buy up the houses. If not that then they buy holiday homes, I think there should be border controls to be honest. Ghost towns and a high population of imported older migrants are a big strain on the economy. Colonisation of Wales is still ongoing unfortunately, and the only nationalist party around wouldn’t come a mile from this conversation.