The leading Labour Party ‘think tank’, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has issued a report saying that the government needs to employ even more `migrants’ to `boost the economy’.

The IPPR — which has a history of helping to shape government policy — says in its latest report that the government must do more to encourage local authorities to “encourage migrants to stay.”

The Communities and Local Government said it tried to maximise benefits and ‘mitigate’ the impact of migrants. Previous IPPR analysis of immigration statistics showed that more than a million migrants came to the UK from the eight Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in May 2004, but about half of those have already returned home.

MigrationWatch UK Chairman Andrew Green responded by saying that the last thing Britain needed was more immigrants.

“Our population is increasing by a third of a million every year, mainly due to immigration. We will have to build the equivalent of the city of Birmingham every three years just to cope with this. The public are, rightly, deeply opposed to the present massive levels of immigration without encouraging yet more.”

Last month a report by the Commons communities and local government committee said rapid immigration had damaged community relations in parts of England.

In three areas with high immigration: Peterborough, Burnley, and Barking and Dagenham; community cohesion was among the lowest in the country, the MPs said. The report said there was “significant public anxiety” over issues such as pressure on public services.

The IPPR is best known for its Commission on Social Justice, which provided the basis for many of the policies of the New Labour government that came to power in 1997.