Councils slam Slough migration 'lottery'
Councils facing increasing pressures as a result of migration have joined forces to demand action from the Government on inaccurate population figures which they describe as tantamount to introducing a 'lottery'.
The group of local authorities have written a joint letter to Treasury Minister, John Healey MP, urging him not to use these new figures to determine council funding. The councils - Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Slough - have reacted angrily to counter-intuitive predictions that London’s migrant population is 60,000 less than was previously thought.
In the joint letter, the councils called for improvements to official statistics and have even offered to produce more accurate local figures. They warn that this latest attempt to gather numbers has undermined their confidence in the Office of National Statistics' ability to enhance the quality and accuracy of migration statistics.
Sir Simon Milton, leader of Westminster City Council said: “We simply do not believe the official statistics remotely represent the true picture of migration into Westminster.
“The council has anecdotal evidence to suggest that over 2,000 migrants are coming through Victoria Coach Station on a weekly basis and this seems to tally with the Department for Work and Pensions' national insurance figures, as well as those from Home Office’s Worker Registration Scheme.
“We are so concerned about the use of these figures for vital council funding that we are lobbying the Treasury in addition to commissioning our own surveys."
Councillor Richard Stokes, leader of Slough Borough Council, said: "Official migration statistics are not fit for purpose. Estimates have failed to keep pace with what is happening on the ground and public services are suffering as a consequence.
"The migrants that come to Slough are hard working and bring great benefit to the local economy but the council remains severely under funded because of these poor statistics.
"We have waited to see the improvements promised by the Office for National Statistics for four years but it is obvious from recent announcements that the new estimates are just not up to the job."
Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, said: "I didn't think it was possible but this new method for counting migration is actually worse than the old one - which was also a disaster. The government's new figures suggest that we have fewer migrants than three years ago, which is frankly inconceivable.
“The new methodology grossly underestimates the numbers of migrant workers in Hammersmith and Fulham and still does not account for those spending less than a year in the country.
"In Hammersmith and Fulham we know National Insurance registrations among A8 accession state nationals - Poland and other Eastern European countries - are up by more than 550 per cent and that's before other migrants are counted."
Councillor Merrick Cockell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: "We have grave concerns about the accuracy of the population figures derived from the recent ONS estimates, which reduced the Borough's population by 21,000 at a stroke.
“The estimates now claim that London's overall population is falling which most Londoners would find incredible. We believe the figures they have used to calculate the population are flawed and our community will suffer as a result of these. The accuracy, volatility and adjustments to the figures undermines the Council's confidence in them.
“This loss of funding will put a considerable strain on our ability to provide the excellent services we pride ourselves on. We hope that our residents do not have to pay the price of the Governments decision to use faulty data.”
Slough Borough Council