29 February 2008
The local government funding system needs to be flexible enough to respond to the pressures of migration, local government leaders have said.
Tim Allen, director of analysis and research at the Local Government Association, told MPs this week that the government's £50m fund for community cohesion activities was 'very much welcome', but didn't go far enough.
He reiterated the LGA's call for a £250m migration contingency fund to be set up as a rapid response to population growth, to cope with the extra demand for services, but said a longer-term solution was needed.
Giving evidence to the Commons communities and local government select committee on February 25, Allen said: 'I think long term we have to have a system that gives us reasonable security of funding over a period of years because we've got to plan, but you have to have some mechanism to respond effectively to the events we've seen in the past three or four years.'
He was joined by Andrew Blake-Herbert, strategic director of resources at Slough Borough Council, which has highlighted the mismatch between population estimates and funding levels.
'With three-year settlements it's nice to… know where you're going, but not when it's based on inaccurate and flawed population statistics,' he said.
'So the fact that we have three-year settlements means in those interim periods there needs to be a responsive source of funding for local authorities to call on when they have particular pressures.'
The committee is conducting an inquiry into community cohesion and migration issues. It also heard from Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Phillips said he had some 'anxieties' about the way the £50m cohesion fund was being distributed. 'The way they're distributing funds is based on the number of people who say, “People get on well in my area”. The more people who say that, the less they are deemed to be of concern,' Phillips said.
'There is a well-established school of thought… which suggests that the point at which people get anxious is the point at which true integration begins, because that's the point at which people start to meet each other.'
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