Birmingham Local Conservatives have written to the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, calling for an immediate halt to the expansion of asylum accommodation in Birmingham. The presence of over 7000 asylum seekers placed in and around the wider Birmingham area has already been linked to a series of crimes and appalling incidents in which asylum seekers are said to have compromised the safety of local residents.
Cllr Bruce Lines (Con, Bartley Green), Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing & Homelessness, has written to the Home Office warning that Birmingham is at breaking point and cannot take any more asylum seekers in dispersed accommodation or hotels as the city is already struggling to meet residents' basic needs. The letter raises serious concerns about public safety, stretched public services, and growing community tensions, calling for an immediate halt to further placements in the city and for current placements to be relocated elsewhere. Birmingham Local Conservatives are urging the government to work with local authorities on a fairer and more sustainable solution.
As well as the serious risk to residents posed by placing further illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in the city, Birmingham has 23,000 applicants waiting on the Council’s housing list to whom the Council owes a moral duty to house first. Worse, once applicants are placed, they must then contend with the 70% of social housing in the City which fails to meet the Decent Homes Standard. In addition, 4,500 households with children are currently living in temporary accommodation, including hotels & B&Bs.
Cllr Lines writes:
We urge the Home Office to halt any further placements of asylum seekers in Birmingham. For those currently housed here, we call for immediate action to relocate them to more appropriate accommodation elsewhere, including offshore. Birmingham cannot continue to bear this disproportionate burden.
Birmingham Local Conservatives believe that the City should focus on providing quality housing to Brummies first.
