Immigrants baby boom costs £1bn

The vast sum will be ­needed to create more than 96,000 extra places at primary level – around 67,000 to educate children of parents born outside the UK.

It will also cost the British taxpayer at least £200million a year to run them, warns a cross-party group of MPs.

The knock-on costs to other public services like housing are predicted to be “even greater”.

Last night MPs ­Nicholas Soames and Frank Field called on ministers to ­cut immigration now to stop the population surging past the 70 million mark.

In a joint statement, the ­veteran parliamentarians who chair the Cross ­Party Group on ­Balanced ­Migration, said: “This research illustrates how uncontrolled immigration is directly affecting ordinary families.”

The pair – former Tory and Labour ministers respectively – said the Government “have clearly failed to plan for the consequences of the mass immigration they have permitted”.

The study found that 703,000 five-year-olds will be entering ­primary school in 2014, ­compared with 607,000 now.

Of the 96,000 increase, more than half will be born in families where neither parent was born in the UK. Around a sixth – 13,000 – have one foreign-born parent. Less than a third, 29,000, have both parents born here.

The findings come as it is ­revealed that tens of t­housands of British ­parents already struggle to get ­children into their first choice of primary school.

Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which conducted the survey, warned: “It’s of the utmost importance that our politicians understand the severity of the situation and plan accordingly so that ordinary people are not left picking up a huge bill or can’t get adequate education for their own kids.”

He went on: “These figures portend a crisis in education funding, and a huge financial burden on taxpayers.”

He attacked Labour’s political correctness for too often leading MPs to put off tackling crucial concerns about public services.

“Too often poor preparation and political correctness lead MPs to put off tackling public service reforms, making the end result more expensive and inefficient than it needs to be.”

The far-reaching research was commissioned by the cross-party group and conducted by the think tank Migrationwatch UK.

Its chairman, Sir Andrew Green, warned that education was not the only burden on taxpayers as a result of record-breaking immigration.

“This is just one example of the impact of mass immigration on our public services,” he said.

“An even bigger one is housing, where immigration accounts for 40 per cent of all new households.

“This means we will have to build nearly 2,000 houses a week just for new immigrants and their families.”

Nicholas Soames and Frank Field added: “The research is yet more evidence that the Government must take steps to reduce immigration.

“It must prevent our population from reaching 70million within the next 25 years, as official forecasts now predict, if public services and the public purse are to be protected.

“Today’s research highlights primary school places but the same applies to health, housing and other services.”

The anticipated burden on education comes as figures from 42 local authorities show that one in 10 five-year-olds are already refused their parents’ first choice of primary school.

The data suggests that up to 60,000 youngsters could be missing out.

Already some parents are so desperate they are moving house to get their youngsters into the school they want.

Education experts warned that the situation can only get worse.

Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Parents are already facing difficulties over admissions.

“Education ministers and councils need to get together quickly.

“Funding tends to be going towards building new schools when extensions or refurbishments would do.

“Literally billions are already being wasted.”

Last night the Government tried to play down the report’s findings.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “There is no nationwide primary school place shortage.

“There are over half a million spare places in primary schools across the country.

“Schools in England have had a seven-fold rise in funding for building and renovating schools, from just £700million a year to more than £7billion now.

“In July we announced a £200million fund to build permanent classrooms for reception pupils over the next two years in areas facing exceptional growth in demand. The latest figures showed a fall in net migration – which is further proof that migrants come to the UK for short periods of time, work, contribute to the economy and then return home.

“Our new flexible points-based system gives us greater control on those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain needs can come.”

Last month the Office for National Statistics revealed the population of Britain passed 61million for the first time. The fastest population growth in half a century was fuelled in part by high birth rates among immigrant families.This helped boost the number of births last year to 791,000 – up 33,000 on 2007.

Labour ministers had tried to claim that a recent dip in immigration meant the population would not rise above 70million by the year 2031.

But MigrationwatchUK found asylum seekers and visitors who decide to stay meant 153,000 people are added to the population every year.