25 April 2008
Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears said this week that councils were vital in managing the impact of immigration on communities – but she rejected calls for a contingency fund for town halls.
Speaking to MPs on April 22, Blears said that Local Strategic Partnerships, led by councils, were best placed to manage the effects of immigration on cohesion. But other funding streams were a better approach to supporting local areas. These include the £50m cohesion fund and a possible 'transitional impact fund', as suggested in the recent Home Office citizenship green paper. Under this, migrants would pay higher application fees if they or their dependants were likely to be heavy users of public services.
The Local Government Association has made repeated calls for a £250m fund to help areas most under pressure from immigration.
'What's important is to improve the data and make sure that when we do the next three-year settlement and the next Comprehensive Spending Review we get that embedded in mainstream public services, because this change is going to be with us for some time to come,' she added.
Blears said the overall level of community cohesion in Britain was 'extremely good' but the 'scale and pace of change' meant people were feeling the impact. Local areas were affected in different ways, she added. She pointed to the high numbers of European migrant workers in Boston, Lincolnshire, compared with the arrival of large African families in Haringey, north London.
She was joined by Home Office minister Liam Byrne at a hearing of the communities and local government select committee inquiry into cohesion and migration, where both ministers said learning English was central to integration.
Byrne said: 'The ability to speak English is the first value above all others that the British public wants to see absolutely at the heart of immigration reform.' He said the 'hard-wiring of English into migration reform' was fundamental to government plans.
Blears said the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was telling employers that they had a responsibility to contribute towards the cost of English language classes as they benefited directly from immigration. The government had not ruled out legislation.
She said: 'If employers could make a bigger contribution, that would free up the resources to direct at people who genuinely can't afford it.'
Blears said Dius was carrying out a consultation on how to make English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) courses more flexible, but ruled out increases in funding.
The CBI said business leaders opposed the idea of compelling employers to contribute towards classes.
Susan Anderson, director of human resources policy at the CBI, said many employers helped with the costs of English classes and saw the advantages of doing so, but 'forcing firms to pay for language lessons' would not recognise employers' individual circumstances.
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