SIR - Tom Clinton (Letters, May 24) questions the source of the figure of approximately 220,000 net migrants arriving in the UK each year.

The figures are there for all to see courtesy of the Office for National Statistic (ONS).

If we go back to 2007 then the average numbers are higher than this.

The ONS figures suggest that over the last 11 years there have been approximately 2.7 million net migrants to the UK.

That is roughly the population of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Sunderland.

This, in conjunction with an overall increase in the population of the United Kingdom from 58.89 million in 2000 to 65.64 million in 2016 means that we have to build much more housing than we currently are doing to accommodate the expanding population of which continued uncontrolled migration contributes greatly.

Can anyone, therefore, still seriously think that Craven’s towns and villages, or indeed much of rural England, can be exempted from a national housing demand of this magnitude?

The Government has already urged authorities throughout England and Wales to voluntarily authorise more housing development or, failing that, they will be compelled to do so.

Only a clean Brexit can give the Government the powers needed to put a stop to the folly of mass uncontrolled migration to the UK.

A J A Smith, Cowling