The figures will add to concerns over the pressure migrants are having on public services and communities. A paper from the Cabinet Office strategy unit this week said new clusters of settled migrants could be developing in suburbs and may cause tensions with residents.

The Daily Express told last month how almost two million new homes will have to be built over the next two decades to cope with the influx.

The scale of the pressure on public services was also revealed in a major report from local councils. In the most comprehensive study to date, problems were highlighted in 15 key areas, including health, housing, crime and schools.

Earlier last year, immigration minister Liam Byrne even admitted that mass migration is “deeply unsettling” Britain and piling pressure on communities.

Mr Byrne and the Home Office faced further criticism yesterday after saying that foreign immigration from outside the EU was no more than 52 per cent of those arriving. That figure has been regularly used as evidence that any annual cap on migrants would not have a large effect.

The debate over annual limits centres on the fact that it would not affect EU citizens who have free movement between member states.

Think tank Migrationwatch UK has argued that the Government estimates include movements by Britons, and a truer reflection of the impact of foreign migration, without British movements, is 68 per cent.

The Statistics Commission has now backed that argument in a letter from chairman Professor David Rhind after Migrationwatch asked him to review the figures.

It focuses on the ONS figures which show that of the net 316,000 foreign immigrants in 2006, 215,000 – or 68 per cent – were from outside the EU.

A large proportion came from the New Commonwealth, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Migrationwatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green, said: “This is highly significant in practical terms. The Government has no control over who comes from EU states, but it could reduce the numbers from non-EU countries.”

But the Home Office rejected suggestions that its statistics were inaccurate.

Chief statistician David Blunt said: “The total immigration statistics published in November 2006 showed that 89,000 of the total net migration flow to the UK of 185,000 in 2005 was accounted for by other EU countries.

“More recent ONS publications for 2006 also show gross, rather than net, figures highlighting that only around one-fifth of total non-British migrants to the UK are from outside the EU and are coming to the UK for work-related reasons.”

Liam Byrne said: “The public want sweeping changes to our border security and that’s exactly what we’re delivering throughout 2008.”