Sir, – I don't know Saltburn well enough to comment on overpopulation there ("Crowded island", D&S letters, March 27) but I do know Richmond, North Yorkshire, where the population is predominantly British and elderly. This country, as with most of Europe suffers from too many old people and too few young people.

We need migrants to support our increasingly elderly population. Recent research from the NIESR (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) found that productivity increases when businesses employ skilled migrants as "on average, [they] are more educated and tend to work longer hours than natives".

A paper for the IFS (Institute of Fiscal Studies) found "immigrants who arrived after EU enlargement in 2004 and who have at least one year of residence, and are therefore legally eligible to claim benefits, are 59 per cent less likely than natives to receive state benefits or tax credits and 57 per cent less likely to live in social housing. And, the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) makes clear that "net migration will add 0.6 per cent to the potential of the British economy" and "while an extra 239,000 non-UK nationals are in jobs in Britain..., the number of Uk nationals in work rose by even more – 375,000) (The Guardian, March 20, 2015)

We need migration into this country to work and pay the taxes that support our elderly population. Our ageing population is one of the greatest challenges facing this country and the one that possibly most contributes to our "crowded island". It would be refreshing to hear our politicians speak more on that dilemma.

SALLY RECKERT

Richmond.