letters-wee-migrants

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 1 June 2007

Migrants can't afford to live in Westminster

• I HAVE been following Westminster City Council’s campaign against the official population and migrant figures with interest.
The council says it has anecdotal ‘evidence’ about 2,000 migrants a week arriving at Victoria Coach Station.
Am I missing something when I ask how many of the 15,500 migrants who the council claims have not been counted by the official figures can actually afford to live in Westminster?
Westminster is one of the most expensive places in the world to live.
House prices are rising at astronomical rates. Surely, very few of the 15,500 poor migrants from eastern Europe can afford to pay the huge rents being asked for the smallest rooms even in the cheapest parts of Westminster?
Also, what evidence does the council have that these migrants are costing them significant amounts of money?
As far as I am aware, the council has absolutely no information on the number of children of migrants who have arrived at Victoria Coach Station and who are now attending Westminster schools.
I also know for a fact that the council has housed none of the 15,500 migrants who the it says have arrived in Westminster.
The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of migrants to the UK are living outside Westminster in cheaper parts of London and the South- east, but are making a contribution to Westminster’s and the rest of London’s economy by taking low-wage jobs, such as sweeping the streets, cleaning offices and working in cafés and restaurants and on building sites, which would be impossible to fill otherwise.
The council’s scaremongering campaign about the “Council Tax increasing by £50 or slashing libraries by a third” because of the increase in immigration is an absolute disgrace – particularly when the council has more than £50 million in its reserves, over £30 million more than successive directors of finance have advised is necessary for the council to operate effectively.
Put simply, if there is a financial issue, then Westminster is well placed to cover the extra costs because of the council’s massive unspent reserves built up over years of penny-pinching and year-on-year cuts in services.
In addition, laying the blame for an increase in the council tax or cuts in services on poor immigrants from eastern Europe is playing with fire and potentially very damaging to community relations and community cohesion.
COUNCILLOR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Leader of the Labour Group
City Hall, Victoria Street, SW1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: