Michael Tomlinson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what help his Department will provide to assist local authorities to resettle Syrian refugees over the next five years.

Richard Harrington

Local authorities have played a vital role in helping those Syrian refugees arriving here to settle into a new life in the UK. The Syrian Resettlement Team, made up of officials from Home Office, DCLG and DFID, is working closely with those local authorities that wish to participate in the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, helping to manage the process of accepting refugees for resettlement, providing help and advice where appropriate.

At the Spending Review the Government committed £129 million to assist with local authority costs over years 2-5 for those local authorities who are resettlling refugees under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. This is unringfenced funding and it will be for local authorities to decide how to use the funding to support the refugees they resettle.