House prices could be 10pc lower without mass immigration, Theresa May says One area in which we can be certain mass immigration has an effect is housing. More than one third of all new housing demand in Britain is caused by immigration. And there is evidence that without the demand caused by mass immigration, house prices could be 10 per cent lower over a 20 year period. In a report on the economic impact of immigration for the House of Lords, Professor Stephen Nickell found house prices would be 13% higher if net migration stood at 190,000 a year than they would be with zero migration. The "radical extension" of face-to-face visa interviews for foreign students and other migrants coming to the UK comes after a pilot scheme trialled 2,300 interviews in Pakistan. "The lesson from that pilot was clear - abuse was rife, paper-based checks weren't working, and interviews, conducted by entry clearance officers with the freedom to use their judgement, work," Mrs May said. The scheme will be extended to more than 100,000 interviews from April, starting with those from high-risk countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, China and India, to try to weed out bogus students. "From there, we will extend the interviewing programme further across all routes to Britain, wherever the evidence takes us," Mrs May said in a key speech on immigration in central London. I believe this new approach will help us to root out the abuse of British visas, and improve the integrity of our immigration system. She went on: "Uncontrolled, mass immigration displaces British workers, forces people onto benefits, and suppresses wages for the low-paid." The changes would strike a balance between the UK gaining from the economic benefits of higher education and ensuring colleges are selling education, not immigration. "If you can speak English, and you can get a place on a proper course at a proper university, you can come to study in Britain," she said. In the wide-ranging speech on immigration, Mrs May also said 87% of the 500,000 rise in the number of people in work this year compared to last year was caused by British-born workers, adding: "Our policies are beginning to bite." Government impact assessments should also, in future, determine the effects of immigration in areas where it will be felt the most, like in the availability and cost of housing, the transport system, the National Health Service or the number of school places, she added.