Cllr Stuart Carroll is the Cabinet Member for Children Services, Education & Health on Windsor and Maidenhead Council. Cllr Andy Johnson is the Leader of Windsor and Maidenhead Council.
The UK border crisis resulting from illegal asylum seekers harrowingly risking their lives across the Channel is now a full-blown national and international catastrophe. This raises serious security and governance questions about the UK’s ability to manage its own borders. It has added democratic importance, given the promise of Brexit and 17.4 million votes. After all, a purported benefit of outright democratic sovereignty must be border control and associated laws. Without that, sovereignty and public trust in government is undermined. This is magnified when asylum seekers are plonked in local hotels without consultation and due process with local authorities. Despite local communities wanting to uphold our proud record of providing asylum to genuine refugees, there are practical capacity limits and absent consultation is an affront to local democracy.
Although the spotlight has been shone on the border itself and the parlous humanitarian situation, there has been limited scrutiny of the inimical impact on local government. Lest we forget, local government delivers most day-to-day government services including social care, education and school places, fostering and safeguarding, health visiting services, public health, highways, planning, bin collections and environmental services. All critical services with a cost, which is largely offset by council tax.
In the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM), this crisis has had enormous repercussions. Financially, we have absorbed unforeseen pressures near £1 million to manage unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). This equates to roughly a 1.25 per cent council tax increase, or £1 million of service reductions in other areas, as we won’t receive the money back from government. Moreover, the government does not consult; instead unilaterally placing (arguably dumping) people into local areas, taking over hotels to house asylum seekers. This lack of dialogue is outrageous, particularly given many of the chosen locations are inappropriate. In RBWM, we have had two hotels repurposed in central Maidenhead and Datchet. This has caused much concern amongst the local community.
Hitherto, substantial resource and service pressures have been incurred. RBWM has nearly 225 refugees attending RBWM schools. Consequently, we are experiencing a shortage of year 5 places. We have also increased vehicle school transport equating to 15 new children/young people additionally costing circa £59,000. For health visiting and school nursing, approaching 50 drop-in surgeries have occurred to the hotels since April, each comprising between one and three health staff.
Social care assessments are significant with hundreds undertaken. For UASCs, RBWM has 25 young people from the National Transfer Scheme and six from the hotels. Previously, we only had six, so an increase to 31. In the south east, only RBWM and Kent are over a hundred per cent, with a significant impact on staff capacity and council budgets. Also, 19 of our UASCs are 17 years. When 18, Home Office funding significantly decreases; yet is incongruous with the cohort’s needs. Local government absorbs the bill.
Given high inflation, rising interest rates and energy costs, uncertainty around central government funding, pandemic consequences and pressure on reserves, all councils face considerable financial pressure. These pressures from the border crisis only exacerbate an already tough situation accentuating the need for serious Government action.
We are calling on the Government to implement an urgent five-point plan.
A local government forum and funding formula
The Government must establish an immediate local government forum so no decisions regarding local accommodation are made without local authorities, on the appropriateness of proposed locations. All decisions must respect four Cs: communication, collaboration, consultation and coordination, leading to another critical C, consent. An urgent local funding formula needs implementing to ensure, beyond per capita accommodation costs, all downstream and opportunity costs resulting from required interventions across health, social care, housing and education are reimbursed. Although local government must be accountable for its services, it cannot be liable for costs from this crisis. That’s the responsibility of national government. Cost shunting like this is unacceptable and demands an unpalatable cocktail of local services cuts and increased regressive council tax. Action is needed now.
Emergency Crisis Unit
The Government needs to immediately establish a Border Crisis Unit sitting outside the failing Home Office reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The crisis requires ultimate executive leadership and oversight. Analogous to the eminently successful Vaccines Taskforce (VTF) delivering the first ever COVID-19 pandemic vaccine – this was effectively removed from Whitehall due to concern about civil service delivery (Stuart Carroll was an early VTF member); there is now a similar urgent imperative.
The former Home Secretary John Reid once stingingly declared in 2006 that the Home Office was “not fit for purpose”. Frankly, little has changed. Alas, it has got worse with more complex problems. Wholesale reform is desperately needed. Yet for a sense of urgency and mission, this unit is needed and crucially must bring in expert external leadership to enable decisions and be given the necessary resources to tackle the challenges ahead. The Prime Minister should chair regular meetings to validate strategy with the Home Secretary responsible for day-to-day operations.
This Unit must include the UK Border Force and Intelligence Services with a serious plan to bust organised crime and people smuggling. The tariff for people smuggling has increased but should be a life sentence given the severity of the crime, whilst empowering the intelligence services to go further. Indeed, this monstrous criminal activity will ultimately only be smashed through intelligence and international cooperation. The UK needs a vigorous leadership role.
International dialogue
The ultimate solution is international, requiring foreign policy dialogue particularly with France. Rishi Sunak’s policy of enhanced French “entente cordiale” is sensible yet must be matched with legal accountability to ensure increased UK funding yields returns. The patent abdication of legal obligations under the Geneva Convention and other areas of international law is unacceptable. It is also high time the UK forensically reviews its legal standing on border crossings.
Although we want to see the UK continue to be outward and compassionate – augmenting our strong record of offering asylum to those genuinely in need – the basic arithmetic, and fundamental border control, mean regulation and numbers matter. This is an elephant in the room and something the public overwhelmingly demands.
This does mean reviewing the European Convention on Human Rights, not because we want to see the UK secede, but to accentuate why it seems acceptable for some countries to liberally interpret and flunk obligations, whilst the UK personifies full compliance with all its consequences. International law is unequivocal: asylum is the function of the first safe-haven. This evidently means, given the UK is an island, other countries are allowing illegal asylum and people smuggling or are simply not equipped to handle it; or a grim combination of both. Regardless, the UK should not be punished for pursuing a world of legal compliance, yet border meltdown, with others flagrantly failing to uphold basic obligations.
Border patrols and security
There is a practical imperative to this crisis, meaning border patrols within the Channel are maximally resourced. The UK Border Force needs a serious elevation in investment, but also leadership; hence the proposal for the Border Crisis Unit. The Border Force should second police officers and military personnel to fill immediate resource gaps, leveraging surveillance options and enhanced technology to assist with border imperatives. The Royal Navy must continue to be deployed with priority to ensure floating boats are returned to French shores. The UK needs to take a stronger stand demanding French accountability. If the Royal Navy needs to assert the integrity of the border with safe return, this option must be actively enabled.
Processing centres and accommodation
We must confront the hard reality of a complex, long-term problem. The actions proposed above are part of an integrated mitigation strategy, yet the candid truth is successive administrations have failed to confront the basic demographics and international world order; all magnified by the cost-of-living crisis, pandemic and increases in authoritarian regimes. These international variables combined with genuine asylum cases, plus disingenuous economic migrants, will not ease expeditiously. The problem will get worse before it gets better.
The need to have a functional robust asylum system exemplifying fairness, security, and compassion, is acute. That means proper processing centres with accommodation units rather than the current policy of dumping people, often highly traumatised, in hotels in inapposite locations. If we have to build or repurpose state buildings in appropriate locations, this must happen. Whilst an asylum case is being processed with initial full security checks, we should be enabling people to work so at least a contribution can be made within the UK wherever possible. The current system totally lacks logic and rationale.
Conclusion
Local government pressures are enormous. This is an international, national, and local crisis. That word local is important given all that is being asked of local government and unreasonably so. The government must act and grip this now. Failure will only mean more problems and hemorrhaging public trust. Politically, this will only give rise to the Reform Party already sniffing out vulnerable Red Wall seats and licking its lips at a Conservative takedown. Sir Winston Churchill once said no virtue has any meaning without courage. The UK government and Conservative Party must now be ultra-courageous in tackling this catastrophic situation. A lack of courage will mean an unacceptable disservice to the public and potential political annihilation.