UK plan to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees ‘won’t happen because of chronic lack of school places’

PLANS to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 are at serious risk because of a chronic lack of school places in the UK – a report warns today.

In a blistering report, the National Audit Office says that councils are pulling out of the resettlement programme because of the huge pressure they already face in finding space for kids in their area.

Councils need to secure an estimated 10,664 childcare and school places for Syrian children being resettled under the programme announced by David Cameron last year.

But the NAO warns that one in five schools in the UK are full or over-capacity because of funding pressures, sky-high immigration and the explosion in Britain’s population.

It added there were also fears in parts of the UK about finding enough available homes.

The NAO said: “The programme will need an estimated 4,930 houses or flats and an estimated 10,664 childcare and school places over its lifetime.

“Local authorities told the NAO that this was the main barrier to their participation in the programme in future.”

Official figures in May revealed that schools were under “huge and unsustainable pressure” from a dramatic rise in the number of children from migrants’ families.

Almost 700,000 school-aged children – one in 15 pupils nationally - have a parent who is a citizen of another European country. This number has doubled since 2007.

Brexit campaigners argued EU free movement was undermining efforts by local councils to keep class sizes down.

Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee said: “We need to be convinced that the Government is committed to supporting local authorities in their efforts.”

David Cameron promised to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps on the border of the war torn country last September.

So far more than 2,600 have come to the UK – with 55 per cent having survived torture or violence.