Polish immigrants take £1bn out of the UK economy

Polish immigrants sent home almost £1billion in the first three months of this year, it has been revealed

The cash taken out of the UK economy would otherwise have been spent in shops, restaurants and other businesses here.

The figures, compiled by the National Bank of Poland, showed that £1.1 billion was sent back from Western Europe to family members living in the former Eastern Bloc country since January.

More than three-quarters of the total is thought to be from Britain, where the majority of Polish migrants moved following the expansion of the EU in

2004.

This means that the total siphoned out of the UK economy is somewhere between £825 million and £1 billion - a rise of around a quarter on the same period last year .

It is the equivalent of up to £2,500 sent home by each one of the 400,000 Poles living in Britain.

Although the sum is too small to dent the health of the British economy, MPs warned that it could begin to have an impact if the trend continues.

Businesses will be forced to tighten their belts if cash paid out in wages is being sent out of the country, rather than spent here.

Tory MP James Clappison said: "This is yet another consequence of Eastern European migration which the Government failed to predict.

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"It has to raise question marks over whether there will be an employment effect here. The Government has not done proper research on that."

The Polish bank said the amount of money being sent back to its economy from Western Europe was a 26 per cent increase on the corresponding quarter of 2006.

The figures were revealed as a Polish newspaper this week published a guide to working in the EU, advising potential migrants to head to Britain.

The daily Dziennik said there are more opportunities here than in countries such as Spain or Italy, where only backbreaking fruit picking at paltry wages is available.

It also pointed out that other EU countries imposed restrictions on new immigrants, in many cases until 2009.

Britain's "open door" policy has seen the number of arrivals from the eight countries, which joined in May 2004, reach 630,000.

Earlier this week, Poles were blamed for a shortage of £50 notes in Britain. It is claimed they are sending notes home, leaving the Bank of England with insufficient numbers in circulation.