ONS loses 95,000 Londoners in latest population count

The capital's councils are faced with severe financial shortfalls over the next three years due to woefully inaccurate population projections published by the Office for National Statistics this morning.

These population projections will be used by government to determine the amount of grant councils will receive for the next three years, which will be announced later this year. This grant is used to fund essential services such as those for vulnerable people including the elderly and children in state care.

However, the new population projections result in a reduction of 95,000 in London's population for 2007 when compared to population predictions from previous years. This fails to take account of the rapid and increasing scale of international migration into the capital and totally contradicts reports from front line service providers who have produced evidence of continuing increases in the capital's migrant population and growing demand for services.

New population counting methods used by the ONS have resulted in the 'loss' of 95,000 people in the capital. This is easily the biggest reduction in the population of any region in the country.

Unless the government urgently addresses the ONS's failure to accurately estimate London's population, some councils will struggle to run services for their most vulnerable residents over the next three years. 

Expressing his concern at the latest population projections London Councils Chairman Councillor, Merrick Cockell said:

"London's councils services are faced with being put at risk from the ONS's failings. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. These sub-standard population counting methods are now widely recognised as such, even within the government's own ranks.

The government now has a chance to resolve these inadequacies, before the Comprehensive Spending Review in October and the announcement of local government grant for the next three years. If not, the incompetence of the ONS will be passed on to local councils. This will hamper the hard work we all do to provide the best possible services for Londoners."

Notes to editors:

• The government provides local authorities with an annual grant through the Local Government Finance Settlement. This allocation has a significant impact on council budgets, the services local authorities provide and council tax levels.
  
  
• Research carried out by the London borough of Enfield in November 2006 shows that around 3,300 more people live in the borough than the ONS mid-year estimates suggest, while similar surveys by in the London boroughs of Brent, Newham, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea also show differences with the ONS estimates.

For more information please contact Holly Sutton in the London Councils press office on 020 7934 9842 or at holly.sutton@londoncouncils.gov.uk