Council services get £18 million

Councils across England are to receive an additional £18 million to help ease pressures on local services resulting from recent migration.

Councils receiving the grants have developed plans to alleviate local pressures arising from migration and at the same time providing overall benefits to their wider communities.

The grants are the second allocations from the £100 million Controlling Migration Fund, following £15 million awarded earlier this year.

Many of the projects supported will provide English lessons to allow new residents to feel included in their communities, and will teach them about British values and social norms, helping to break down cultural barriers.

The fund is helping to alleviate pressures on local services but work still needs to be done to bring down net migration to sustainable levels.

Lord Bourne, Communities Minister, said: “In some places population change in a short space of time has put pressure on local services and we’re clear there are things we can do to address these problems.

“This new funding will help councils rise to the challenge of reducing the impact of migration on local communities in a variety of ways – whether that’s tackling the small minority of landlords who damage neighbourhoods with overcrowded properties, providing English language classes to ensure effective integration.

“It’s great to see so many projects tackling the problems of poor integration in their communities by, for example, allowing migrants to access the benefits of good English. This will create stronger relationships between neighbours and unlock better services for all.”

Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire will receive £1 million to fund a range of integration projects. Michael Cooper, council leader, said: “We’ve been awarded this money in recognition of the impact that migration has had locally. Our partnership will focus on doing things that our residents have told us are important to them.

“We will extend the availability of advice services, enforcement capacity, community leadership and volunteering opportunities and importantly, we will support the development of English language skills to support people to communicate effectively with public services to help save time and money and increase efficiency and effectiveness.”

Peterborough’s project will help new residents navigate services and provide additional capacity for the whole community. Irene Walsh, council cabinet member for communities, said: “We are delighted to receive this funding from the Controlling Migration Fund as it will allow even more people to benefit from the valuable service provided by Citizens Advice Peterborough in more locations across the city.”