Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed the Rt. Hon. Brandon Lewis MP, Minister for Immigration, to the meeting and thanked him for agreeing to speak to members.

The Minister thanked Councillors for the work they had done so far in supporting refugees through the Syrian vulnerable person resettlement programme (VPR) and he emphasised the benefits of having strong local leadership, as well as a good working relationship between central and local government. He discussed Brexit and advised members that the Government was clear that it wanted EU nationals already living in the UK legally to be able to remain here, while also protecting British citizens living abroad. The Minister touched on the immigration system and the importance of ensuring it works best for the country, while also noting the need to carry out a detailed assessment of migration from the EU. He praised participating local authorities and said that the UK was on track to honour its commitment to resettling 20,000 refugees under this scheme by 2020, but also said that the Government was keen to see more support for the children’s resettlement scheme.

The Minister thanked local authorities for their responses to the funding review and explained that the Home Office would do what it can to make additional resources available to help manage migration and integration within local communities. He emphasised that the UK remains committed to playing its part to support refugees via international aid and resettlement schemes, but noted the ongoing need to distinguish between economic migrants and refugees.

The Government was due to publish its integration strategy in autumn 2017 and the Minister was keen for councils to continue engaging with the Government on how to ensure resettlement offers work best for all.

The Minister was not able to stay after his speech so Cllr David Simmonds, Chair of the LGA’s Asylum Refugee and Migration Task and Finish Group, led a brief discussion and assured members he would put any questions they had to the Minister at a meeting of the Task and Finish Group on 26 October.

The following points were made:

·         Members welcomed the Minister’s comments on dealing with homelessness and rough sleeping caused, in part, by a number of people having no recourse to public funds. Cllr Simmonds noted that a more detailed conversation about this particular issue would be had at the meeting of the Task and Finish Group.

·         Concerns were raised about councils being unwilling to resettle children due to the cost of taking on private healthcare fees. Cllr Simmonds agreed with this and said that unfunded costs were the main reason councils had so far been reluctant to participate in the resettlement scheme.

·         Members noted that many councils were having problems with HMOs being set up illegally and they emphasised the pressure this was causing to the population of effected areas. Concerns were raised about planning departments rejecting applications only to have their decisions overturned by the Planning Inspectorate. Cllr Simmonds said that legislation had been changed to allow councils to take more robust action against landlords housing people who were in the UK illegally but that the wider issue was the level of interaction between housing departments and the immigration system. He said that the contracts used by the Home Office to procure accommodation were effectively a race to the bottom and was leading to asylum seekers being placed in the cheapest available accommodation, which was often owned by slum landlords. The Minister said that these contracts were due to be re-procured around the end of November and Cllr Simmonds assured members that the Task and Finish Group would provide ample evidence to the Minister as to why contracts need to be procured to a much higher standard.

The Chairman thanked both the Minister and Cllr Simmonds, and the discussion was drawn to a close.