London boroughs endorse £250 million emergency solution to migration miscount

London boroughs top the tables for the local areas in England and Wales most affected by international migration according to a report published today.

The Local Government Association report identifies the areas across the country where services are most feeling the strain from the government's inability to distribute funds in pace with the influx of migrants.

Boroughs in London make up 15 of the top 20 places listed as having the highest proportion of in migrants to total population in 2006 and the entire top-ten list of boroughs with the highest percentage of pupils whose first language is not English are also all in the capital. In addition, the report said there is significant evidence of migrants sleeping rough in London boroughs, but not so much elsewhere in the country.

Whilst these record high levels of in-migrants in the capital contribute considerable amounts to the city's economy, councils are not being given their fair share of the economic benefit. The Office for National Statistics population figures, which are used to determine levels of government grant to councils, seriously underestimate the number of in migrants coming to the country each year.

This situation is being made even worse by the ONS' adoption of a new survey to estimate the capital's population, which has made a downward revision of almost 110,000 people to the capital's population in 2008. This flies in the face of front line service providers' comparable figures who estimated their local populations to be tens of thousands higher than the previous estimates.

Responding to today's report Chairman of London Councils Councillor Merrick Cockell said:

Notes to editors

1. The report 'Estimating the Scale and Impacts of Migration at the local level' was commissioned by the Local Government Association and carried out by the Institute of Community Cohesion.

2. Several London councils have commissioned work that provides good evidence that the current population estimates seriously underestimate the real population of their borough:
   • Extensive work to match individuals to addresses in Brent demonstrated that the official estimates were 2,000 short;
   • a similar exercise in Enfield suggested a 3,300 shortfall;
   • Newham calculated that there were 750 more resident children in their schools than the ONS estimate of school-age children in Newham, even though the borough's figures did not include those children at private schools.
   • This underestimate is not unique to London. Research undertaken on behalf of Slough concludes that their population is underestimated by up to 6,000 residents. The new methodology proposed by the ONS does not address these undercounts.

3. The population figures used by government do not take into account short-term migrants - i.e. those who stay less than 12 months.  A recent report from ONS estimated that London is host to some 40% of all short-term migrants.

4. Other substantial groups of people who live in London are not recorded in the population figures used to calculate government grants.  These include people who live in London between Monday to Friday, but are recorded as resident elsewhere in the country.  There are also significant numbers of illegal migrants who do not appear in any of the population estimates

For press enquiries please contact: Holly Sutton on 020 7934 9842 Holly.Sutton@londoncouncils.gov.uk Fax 020 7934 9769

For non-media enquiries contact: London Councils, 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL Tel 020 7934 9999 www.londoncouncils.gov.uk