The vast majority of the British public think immigration is putting too much pressure on public services, a survey finds.

According to a YouGov poll for Migrationwatch, 85 per cent of Brits believed immigration was a burden on public services such as the NHS, social housing, education and the police.

Only 10 per cent of participants disagreed.

The highest numbers of those who thought that immigration was putting too much pressure on public services came from the East of England (63 per cent), the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands, all on 62 per cent.

Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch: "These figures show that now the scale of immigration and its consequences are now being better understood and people are deeply concerned at what is going on."

It was felt most strongly in the 45 plus age group who are more likely to use services such as health, at 67 per cent.

There was a similar response when asked if Gordon Brown’s Labour government should substantially reduce immigration levels to the UK.

A massive 81 per cent think immigration levels to Britain should be reduced substantially, while just 14 per cent disagreed.

In London, where 30 per cent of the population are immigrants, 70 per cent agreed that immigration levels should be cut dramatically.

When asked if they thought immigration had generally contributed positively to the UK economy, 35 per cent believed that it had, while 54 per cent said that it had not.

When asked if immigration was the result of global trends rather than the actions of the Government, 42 per cent believed it was global trends and 48 per cent said it was down to the Government.

"These figures show that now the scale of immigration and its consequences are now being better understood and people are deeply concerned at what is going on," said Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch.

"This is heightened by the way in which the Government has clearly mishandled the whole issue, making tough sounding pronouncements that are then not followed up in practice.

"The public have at last seen through the smoke and mirrors that has been government policy on this issue for a decade and are very angry that they have not been consulted about such a fundamental change taking place in our society."