16 February 2007
The government's failure to measure population mobility is costing councils in London £100m a year in lost funding for services, according to a study from the London School of Economics.
The research, conducted by Tony Travers for London Councils, found that having large numbers of transient residents and recent immigrants added costs to specific services.
Population mobility and service provision, published on February 12, identified housing and education as the core services coming under pressure. Others, such as electoral and council tax registration, and translation services, are also being strained.
The report said population turnover into and out of the capital ran at 250,000 annually. This did not include movement between the 33 boroughs. At the same time, 100,000 new immigrants are arriving each year.
The failure to fund the pressures on services caused by such high levels of mobility could damage social cohesion, the report found.
Merrick Cockell, chair of London Councils, said he was 'extremely concerned' by the report's findings. 'It is essential that the government supports London boroughs with these additional costs. Without this help, boroughs will struggle to maintain the quality of existing services,' he said.
Despite the strain on services caused by high population mobility, there was 'surprisingly little official interest in the subject', the report found.
It concluded that the centralised system of local government finance meant it was the government's responsibility to improve the measurement of migration and use this data to allocate appropriate funding to councils.
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