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Migrant workers contributed £6 billion to the country’s economic growth last year and earned higher wages than their British counterparts, Home Office figures revealed yesterday.

The study concluded that new arrivals were harder-working, brought sought-after skills and paid more in tax than they used in public services.

The population rose by 189,000 last year, with 574,000 migrants arriving and 385,000 people leaving. The steady increase over the last decade has led to warnings that the country cannot cope with the growth. But the Government figures suggested migration was throwing a life-line to an economy suffering skills shortages and struggling to support a growing bill for pensions.

It was calculated that new migration accounted for about one-sixth of Britain’s economic growth, equivalent to £6 billion last year. The Home Office said the newcomers had “high levels of skills – higher on average than the UK natives” and that employers found migrant workers “reliable and hard-working”.

It reported that migrants earned on average £424 per week last year, compared with £395 for UK-born workers, and as a result paid more per head in tax and VAT than Britons. It also suggested that the work ethic of the new arrivals was also having a positive impact on British workers, helping to increase their pay levels.

The Home Office said research showed migrants contributed 10 per cent of Government revenue, but used only 9.1 per cent of expenditure in such areas as schools or hospitals.

All regions in the UK reported an economic boost from the newcomers, but problems of integration and pressure on public services had also begun to develop.

Community tensions had emerged in areas such as the South-west and Scotland which had not previously experienced large-scale immigration, while several other regions warned of the pressure on the supply of cheap housing.

Source: The Independent