Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “You have had the population growing at a faster rate than GDP. That increase in the population was almost entirely due to fairly rapid rates of inward migration. “It suggests living standards are not really improving that much. The increase in GDP we have seen is by and large just because there are more people in the country. But on a per person or household basis, there is not any more income to go around. It is a bit worrying.” Mr Dales said: “From an economics point of view if you put any politics aside, you want the labour force growing at a faster rate to support economic growth. A good example is that the Labour Party wants to boost homebuilding. “That means they need to make sure there are enough construction workers. If there’s not, they need to get some in from elsewhere. There does need to be some joined-up thinking about the economic objectives and what migration means for that.”
