Net migration to UK remains at over 250,000 a year Theresa May wants to reduce annual net migration to the UK to below 100,000 by the time of the next election. Annual net migration to Britain remains at over 250,000 a year despite the declared ambition of the home secretary, Theresa May, to reduce it below 100,000 by the time of the next election, according to figures published on Thursday. The Office of National Statistics said that the politically sensitive figure for net migration - the number of people coming to stay in the UK for longer than 12 months minus the number going to live abroad for more than 12 months - in the year to September 2011 was 252,000. This is only 3,000 below the 255,000 recorded in the previous year to September 2010 and is a rise of 2,000 from the previous quarter's figure of 250,000 in the year to June 2011. The ONS said that long-term immigration to the UK remained steady at 589,000 - a level it has remained at since 2004. An estimated 252,000 people left Britain to the join the 5 million British citizens already living abroad. About 190,000 people left the UK to work abroad. Overseas students remain the most common reason for coming to live in Britain with 250,000 arriving in the year to September - a similar level to the previous year. The figures also show that the number of people applying for asylum fell slightly to 4,844 in the first three months of 2012. The number of people granted settlement in Britain in the year to March 2012 fell by 35% from 226,478 to 148,144. The latest figures are a blow to Home Office ministers, who have put in place new curbs on non-European workers, including an annual cap on skilled migrants and a clampdown on overseas students but have yet to see the net migration figures moving in the direction of their target. New moves to curb the numbers coming to join close family members and spouses are expected to be detailed shortly. The immigration minister, Damian Green, claimed: "Our tough new rules are now making a real difference with a record 62% drop in student visas in the first quarter of 2012, and overall falls in work visas, family numbers and people settling. As these policies start to bite we are seeing an end to the years when net migration was consistently on the rise. But the hangover from the old system of weak controls means it is still too high and we will continue our programme of reforms to bring net migration down from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands," he said.