Yorkshire urged to take in 50 refugees – at £20,000 a head
LEADERS OF local authorities in North Yorkshire have agreed to urge their councils to take part in the Government’s future refugee resettlement scheme from next year.
It comes after Home Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed the UK plans to resettle around 5,000 of the world’s most vulnerable refugees in the first year of the new scheme, adding to the near-16,000 resettled in the country since 2015 under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
A meeting of Local Government North Yorkshire and York heard it had been proposed the county took a “more conservative target” of an average of 50 refugees being resettled each year due to a lack of available
and suitable housing in the county.
Officials said 50 people would equate to one per cent of the envisaged national programme of 5,000 refugees a year.
They told the meeting local authorities would receive £20,000 per refugee over five years, plus an additional amount to provide education for refugees aged 13 to 18.
Selby District Council leader Mark Crane warned against selecting a few families to move into an area at any one time, saying refugees often gravitated towards places with people from similar backgrounds.
Officers said of the 45 refugee families that had been resettled in North Yorkshire in recent years, seven had moved out of the county, the majority to be with their extended family elsewhere in the country.
Helen Grant, deputy leader of Richmondshire District Council, said the scheme had been very successful in the district.