Asked by: Michael Meacher (Labour - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers the Government plans to resettle in (a) Oldham, (b) Rochdale, (c) all 10 Greater Manchester metropolitan boroughs, (d) London and (e) the South East.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Under the Immigration and Asylum act 1999, asylum seekers who need accommodation are housed in communities across the UK according to an agreed ratio, based on various regional factors. This is reviewed regularly. Within each region, UKVI has established working arrangements with local authorities in order to consider dispersal patterns and numbers. This includes consulting key corporate partners in the local area in order to assess regularly the impact of dispersal policy on a particular community.
The COMPASS contract requires providers to liaise and consult with local authorities to ensure that accommodation provided to asylum seekers does not adversely affect local authority developments or community plans. Providers must also take into account the cultural compatibility of the environment; capacity of local health, education and other support services; concentration of accommodation of service users within particular areas; and the assessment of social tension risks.
Following the expansion of the Government's vulnerable person resettlement scheme, we have established a cross-Government committee to oversee the resettlement of vulnerable refugees. The Local Government Association attended the first meeting of that committee on 11 September, and we are working closely with them and local authorities about future resettlement.