This city is worried about immigration, but who has the solution?

Net migration to the UK rose significantly after Brexit, peaking at 764,000 in 2022, and was an estimated 685,000 in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. An Ipsos survey of 3,000 people in February found 52% of people wanted immigration to be reduced.

Migration has been a high-profile issue in the campaign and there have been bad-tempered clashes between politicians offering very different visions of an issue that regularly tracks as one of the most important for voters., external

On the outskirts of Peterborough we visited the Ortons Shopping Centre, a busy place where discount stores mix with independent shops.

Sarah works for the NHS. She was born in the city and raised her children here. Immigration, she says, has made the city grow very quickly. “We don’t have the resources for everybody,” she tells me.

She reels off a list of pressure points: “The hospital, it’s hard to get accommodation in the city now, especially social housing and school places.” Her grandchildren, she says, have struggled to get a place in the schools closest to them.

These sound like common issues in most towns. “I don’t think it’s all down to immigration,” Sarah admits, “but I think it has had a major impact on them.”

We found Emma waiting with her son and toddler daughter buying fish and chips. Immigration is a big issue for her in this election.

She is on the council house waiting list, and gets housing benefit, but because of high private rental prices she has to top it up by hundreds of pounds every month.

“The new houses that were built were given to all the foreigners that were coming in,” she says.

In the past year, Peterborough council has bought 40 homes to be used by Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.

“It’s not fair, I’ve always worked my life,” she says. “I don’t like it, it makes me angry.”

Peterborough council says the demand for social housing exceeds supply, and that is prioritising those with the highest needs. The homes were bought for legal refugees, it points out, who have the right to live and work in the country.

These are hard choices for councils. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent economics research institute, says Peterborough receives less funding for local services (that’s bin collections and adult and children’s care) and public health (drug and alcohol abuse) than it should do according to need. Places with growing populations can often find themselves falling victim to funding formulas from central government that do not take account of their recent growth.

Haji moved here as child about 50 years ago from Pakistan, and we met him in a traditional Pakistani sweet shop, where for £7 you can get a box full of treats.