UK government welcomes sharp fall in net migration but says more needs to be done

LONDON (AP) – The British government welcomed the news Thursday that net migration in the U.K., the difference between those moving to the country long-term and those leaving, fell by more than two-thirds in the year to June, but insisted that the figure must fall further in order to ease tensions within communities.

The Office for National Statistic said net migration fell 69% to a four-year low of 204,000 in the year to June 2025 from 649,000 the year before largely because fewer people from outside the European Union arrived in the U.K. for work or to study, along with an increase in people moving out of the country.

The British government will hope that the sharp decline will help lower the temperature about an issue that has risen on the political agenda this year.

However, voter concerns have largely centered on illegal migration, specifically on the failure of successive governments to get a grip on asylum seekers making dangerous small boating crossings across the English Channel. That number though, running at almost 40,000 this year, represents a fraction of the total immigration figure.

In the year to June, the statistics agency said long-term immigration stood at 898,000, against nearly 1.3 million over the corresponding period the year before.

Net migration in the U.K. peaked at a record 944,000 in the year to March 2023 in the wake of the lifting of restrictions following the coronavirus pandemic, a new immigration system introduced following the U.K.’s departure from the European Union and the arrival of those fleeing war in Ukraine and China’s clampdown in Hong Kong.

Tighter immigration polices from the previous Conservative administration and the Labour government, which came into power in July 2024, have contributed to the declines seen over the past couple of years.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood welcomed the latest figures but said the government must go further “because the pace and scale of migration has placed immense pressure on local communities.”

Last week, she announced plans to tighten its asylum system in a series of sweeping changes that aim to reduce immigration and quell the political storm over migrants making the small boat crossings across the Channel without authorization.

In July, the government also introduced changes to migration rules including to end overseas recruitment for care workers and raise the annual salary threshold again for skilled worker visas to 41,700 pounds ($55,000) as part of a bid to curb net migration.

Marley Morris from the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Marley Morris said reforms are expected to lead to a further fall, but warned that the government will “need to be careful to balance the need to manage migration with its other priorities on boosting economic growth, supporting housebuilding, and protecting public services.”

Separate figures Thursday from the Home Office showed a 13% rise in the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels to 36,273 in September from June.

The government is legally obligated to house asylum-seekers. Using hotels to do so had been a marginal issue but protests during the summer against their use this year has helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK Party. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to stop using hotels to accommodate asylum-seekers by 2029.