Agenda item

The Chair of the LGA’s Asylum Refugee and Migration Task and Finish Group, Cllr David Simmonds CBE, will introduce the Minister with special responsibility for Syrian Refugees, Richard Harrington MP.

The Chair welcomed Members to Councillors’ Forum. He also welcomed Richard Harrington MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Syrian Refugees.

The Minister praised the local authorities for their responses so far to the crisis and commented on the offers of aid he has already received from local authorities across the UK. He explained that refugees are assessed against UNHCR criteria of vulnerability so people being resettled in the UK  are those most in need.

The Minister outlined the priorities for his department, working closely with local authorities:

• Extending the Vulnerable Persons Programme which operates in many local authorities to help in resettling refugees.

• Expanding the number of local authorities that national Government is working with, acknowledging that circumstances are different in different areas.

•  Working with some local authorities to establish the appropriate funding arrangements to ensure that refugees are protected while keeping costs to a minimum.
  
  

The Minister paid tribute to the response of local people, but confirmed that the Government is not looking for individuals to host refugees in their homes because of issues such as child protection.

The floor was opened up to questions.

• Members asked for clarification on whether Government funding to support asylum seekers would move to wherever the individual was resettled, rather than remain with the local authority with which they were first placed. Members also asked that the wider dispersal arrangements for asylum seekers should not be decoupled from the more recent 5 year programme for Syria announced by the Prime Minister.

• With specific reference to London, Members stressed that unless the Housing Benefit Cap was raised, most London councils would be unable to take any refugees.

• Members emphasised the need for a more equitable dispersal of families across the country under the wider scheme, and raised the point that in certain areas some refugees were being placed in hotels due to lack of capacity.

In response, the Minister gave his commitment that funding would move with the refugees as opposed to remaining with the original council. The Minister confirmed that there were no plans to raise the current Housing Benefit Cap, but that Government were considering introducing some kind of top up system.

The Minister acknowledged the need for a more equitable dispersal system across the country and that this would be looked at by his team. He reiterated that resettlement is voluntary so no local authority should feel that Government is putting pressure on them to receive more refugees than they can provide for.

Members commented that in some areas the only barrier to local authority involvement is funding, and the need for this to continue until the individuals are able to financially sustain themselves. A key part of this is ensuring the efficiency of the assessment process and capacity to ensure that the whole system is working together.