Millions could face higher council tax bills to pay for the influx of migrants from Calais, town halls warn
Home Office gives £40,000-a-year to authorities but total cost of each young refugee can be as high as £133,000
MILLIONS could face higher council tax bills to pay for the recent influx of migrants from Calais, town halls are warning.
While the Home Office give local authorities £40,000-a-year for each young refugee it takes in, the true cost of looking after them can hit £133,000.
The Local Government Association say its members will not be able to cover the shortfall as they try and deal with funding cuts of their own.
Austerity measures have seen their budgets cut by £18billion since 2010, and has led to a warning they will have to increase bills to households to pay for migrant arrivals from the Jungle.
The Home Secretary confirmed another 200 youths will be granted asylum before the controversial settlement is torn down by French authorities, bringing the total to around 650.
David Simmonds, chairman of the LGA’s asylum, refugee and migration task group, told the : “How are the public going to feel if in a year’s time we are saying sorry we have got to close the library or close children’s centres because we have taken in refugee children and the Government is not willing to pay for it?
“It isn’t right that local taxpayers could see rising bills to pay for things which are entirely a consequence of national actions.”
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It comes after reports more than a quarter of four cash-strapped councils are refusing to take lone child migrants in the row over funding, with Government cash only guaranteed for a year.
A voluntary scheme was launched in July urging councils to take a quota of the unaccompanied children stuck at the Calais camp, but a report by Leicestershire County Council said three of the nine regional local authority areas in England are yet to sign up.
Locals in picturesque Great Torrington called it “bizarre” after the youths were transported to a hostel there from an immigration centre in south London on Monday.
The Home Office insists that all nine local authority regions in England are taking part in the scheme, which ensured that “caring responsibilities” are shared across the country.
A spokesman said: “We have consulted with every region their capacity and substantially increased the levels of funding we give to local authorities for providing care.”