Net Migration / Emigration / Immigration / Asylum seekers.

Which is the most important?

Before we look at the above, we need to keep a couple of things in mind. 1 The birth rate in the UK. 2 How the UK is set up in terms of the number of people it needs to remain in what we think of as a prosperous nation. The reality is that the UK birth rate is falling, and a workforce is needed to pay for everything that makes us prosperous.

With that said, what gets little to no coverage is emigration from the UK. The latest ONS numbers, June 2023, say 93000 British citizens left the UK. An AXA PPP International report says the main drivers behind British emigration was Poor work / life balance and poor pay and benefits.

First, that’s around 3 times the number of people that arrive by small boats according to a Dec 15^th Article on the BBC website. In the same story, 89000 sought Asylum in the UK in 2022 (Still less).

What’s not said, and what’s hard to find is the socio-economic breakdown in those numbers.

Let’s face it, if we are losing the mid to high earners and only replace with low earners then it’s not a matter of just measuring in and out, it’s a matter of value (or tax revenue if you like). For example. If I lose a Dr. whose average pay is £76K (net £54K) and replace them with someone working in retail where the average salary is £23.3K (net 20K) then I’m at least 3 times worse off as the government. But it’s even worse than that, because a single parent earning £23.3K with 2 school-age kids living in Berkshire would be entitled to £329.44 per week of benefits, according to money-saving experts website. That’s another £17130 per annum we need to find. FYI the Dr. gets just child benefits at 39.90 per week or 2074.80 per annum.

The extra cost of the 3.3 people on benefits compared to the 1 Dr. is £56.5K. That’s over twice the tax revenue from the Dr.

A GMC report said that 4843 Drs left the UK in the year May 2021 to 2022

Given the above. I’m going to say the emigration part of net migration is something we need to focus on as a high priority. i.e. retain our talent.

This is another thing our MPs should be looking into urgently.

Adrian Abbs

Prospective Candidate

Reading West & Mid Berkshire