Green councillors have called for central government funding for more council houses to be built, after the Government asked councils at short notice to commit to providing more houses for migrant families in 2025.
Stroud District Council unanimously agreed at the full council meeting on December 14 to allocate at least two homes for occupation by migrants.
The meeting heard that the council was being put in the difficult position of being told to find housing for migrants despite there already being nearly 4,000 people on the housing waiting list in the district.
Many councillors – across all parties – expressed dissatisfaction with the short timescale of the government demand. The request was received only two weeks before the deadline imposed by the government for responses.
The scheme is supposedly designed to ensure councils do not take more refugees than public services and communities can cope with – but in practice the government will use the aggregate number of pledges as a cap to limit migration. Many councillors felt that the government should be helping councils to build more houses, instead of treating as a cap the number of houses that councils can pledge at this stage.
Cllr Beki Aldam (Brimscombe & Thrupp) told the meeting: “We’re being manipulated to produce ridiculously low figures so they can hold it up as a hard limit.”
She said the language used by the Government – including “cost” and “burden” – and its recent anti-immigrant legislation were “abominably cruel”.
“This government has still not cleared the backlog of asylum claims and it can take years to process claims. Only 1% of asylum seekers received a decision on their application in the past 12 months. In the meantime, asylum seekers awaiting a decision are not allowed to work and have to survive on £5.84 per day.
“These are statistics of limbo, inertia and despair, with a tragic, human dimension. The government also shows a profound lack of respect for the rule of law, by insisting that Rwanda is treated as a safe place despite clear evidence that it is not.”
She pointed out that migrants have contributed financially to this country, during a time when the UK has run an overall budget deficit. “Immigrants from outside the EU countries paid into the system about 3% more than they took out and they’re 43% less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits. In contrast, super-rich people in the UK registered as having non-domicile status are being legally allowed to avoid paying more than £3.2 billion of tax.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Aldam added, hostile and inflammatory government and media rhetoric on migration are escalating far-right anti-migrant and racist hate crime. “The language and the actions of our government undermine the core British values of democracy, liberty, respect, the rule of law and tolerance,” said Cllr Aldam. “We’re facing down the little guys, and ignoring the giant wastemen. We’re being cruel but impractical, inhumane yet wasteful, we’re lacking common sense but not replacing it with decency.”
Green councillor Chris Jockel (Chalford) told the meeting: “We’re between a rock and a hard place with two equally undesirable decisions. Additional funding should come with this requirement, and it’s cruel and absurd that it’s absent. We need to tell central government that in the absence of funding we should be free to use the money we do have in an intelligent, joined-up way.”
Cllr Chloe Turner (Green, Minchinhampton) said she was “disgusted” by the anti-migrant rhetoric used by Government. “I will vote for this proposal but only because the alternative is worse. I will go home tonight and make a significant donation to GARAS [Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, which supports people arriving in the county from overseas on behalf of the council] to make myself feel better.”
Cllr Tricia Watson (Chalford) said: “I’m shocked that there’s no central government funding for this when we already have a massive waiting list.”
Lucas Schoemaker, Vice-Chair of the Housing committee, commented later: “We have a proud history of welcoming people to the Stroud District and we want the government to take responsibility and fund proper housing for those who need it, both for our local communities and for those fleeing persecution.”
Cllr Catherine Braun, Leader of Stroud District Council, said afterwards: “There is a shortage of affordable housing options in Stroud district, with an increasing number of homeless applications to the Council. This situation urgently needs to be addressed with national funding to tackle the housing crisis. Alongside this action, we need a compassionate and rational migration policy that is properly planned and funded, unlike this appalling scheme from the Conservative Government. We must avoid the tragedy of refugees putting their lives in danger because the Government places ever-greater restrictions on safe and legal routes to reach the UK.”
The background to the debate can be seen at Item 9A on the meeting agenda: https://stroud.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=143&MId=1422&Ver=4