Ministers risk undermining one of the Government's flagship local authorities if they fail to give Westminster City Council extra cash to compensate for inaccuracies in the 2011 Census, an MP has warned.
Mark Field, who represents the cities of Westminster and London, told a parliamentary debate the current process for estimating population sizes was inappropriate for large urban authorities. Blaming the Office for National Statistics for its inflexible methodology, Mr Field said that while the 2011 Census gave Westminster a final population tally of 219,400, this was a 9% reduction – equivalent to almost 22,000 residents – from revised 2010 estimates.
