I have recently received emails from constituents
asking for my support to restore the Migration Impact Fund and increase its
funding.
Immigration is an important subject to me. Leaving
the EU gives us a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a fair, compassionate
and sustainable immigration system to better address issues concerning the
number of people entering this country, their impact on public services, as
well as how well their integrate into local communities.
The Migration Impact Fund (MIF) was introduced by
the Labour Government in 2009 to provide £35 million to local authorities every
year. Its primary purpose was to alleviate the impacts of immigration on local
services. In the light of the overall fiscal position and the need for urgent
action to tackle the deficit, the Coalition Government withdrew the fund as a
cost-saving measure in 2010. The principle to address effects of immigration
however, remained an important one for the previous Government, and led my
party to commit in the 2015 General Election manifesto to introducing a new
Controlling Migration Fund (CMF) to replace the MIF.
In terms of funding, the CMF matches the MIF’s
provision by providing £35 million of funding each year from 2016-2020 to local
authorities to support the delivery of public services. Compared to the
alternative models proposed by think tanks and policy commentators, the CMF
also has more in common with the MIF in its design and scope. In addition, the
CMF goes further by committing additional resources to enforcement and
compliance officers in order to tackle the issue of illegal migration – an
important issue that was not addressed by either the CMF or the previous Labour
Government.
I am therefore of the view that restoring the CMF
with a new version of MIF, which is in itself a replacement and an improvement
on the original MIF, would not serve any meaningful purpose. Far from restoring
the public’s trust in the immigration system, it would distract the important
work that the Government is already doing in reviewing our immigration
arrangements, based on the recommendations of the Migration Advisory Committee,
to ensure that the system is fit for purpose after Brexit. Any substantial
increase in government funding for the CMF would be offset by an increase in
taxation to balance the books, which would affect migrants working hard to make
a living for themselves and look after their families.
Instead, a better way to restore trust in the
system for government officials to work with local people in enabling more
migrants to find employment, education and training, in order to contribute
towards our public services and become fully integrated members of our society.
To this end, the Government is already committing a new £7 million Integrated
Communities Innovation Fund to help encourage local led innovative projects to
tackle local needs in integration, and a number of local authorities across
England have already signed up to this ambitious project.
