Inverclyde Council Courts 750 Migrants a Year to Halt 16% Population Slide

1 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21

Inverclyde says immigration has already helped stabilise its population over the past two years after overseas arrivals trebled to about 750 a year since 2023.
The council’s repopulation strategy aims to keep legal migrants and refugees in Greenock with English classes, job support and housing, as the area’s 78,000 population is projected to shrink another 16% in two decades.
Cheap housing has drawn Africans, Ukrainians, Afghans and others, many working or studying in Glasgow or Paisley, but Greenock’s weak local job market remains the main obstacle to making them stay.
That jobs gap reflects a longer industrial decline: Inverclyde has 22,000 fewer residents than in 1981, IBM’s site closed in 2016, 1,500 jobs have disappeared in four years and the local shipyard is cutting about a quarter of staff.
The strategy stands out in a UK debate often focused on curbing immigration, but local sceptics question where newcomers will work as the town ages, services strain and council tax has risen almost 8%.