Councils have been stripped of access to information about asylum seeker accommodation after the Home Office cracked down on sharing data due to a leak, The MJ understands.
The department said it had ‘paused' sharing its regional asylum dispersal pack data with local government-led strategic migration partnerships after ‘leaks'.
Data no longer being shared includes information about the number of people living in hotels in each area and acquisitions of housing in the community, making it difficult for local government regions to track whether they are above or below their asylum dispersal allocation.
Senior local government chiefs are understood to have raised the issue at a recent meeting of the asylum and resettlement council senior engagement group – the main forum for discussion at a senior officer level between the Government and the sector.
One council chief executive said: ‘It is infuriating that the Home Office is hiding this important data from councils. We need to keep track of what each area is being asked to do in terms of hotels and dispersed accommodation so that we can see that the burden is being borne fairly within regions and between regions. This is no way for the Home Office to build trust and confidence in the working relationship with local government.'
A report earlier this month by charity Refugee Action found Home Office contractors were continuing to procure asylum accommodation in ‘over-threshold areas'.
The report read: ‘Councils described uncertainty about their statutory duties, limited transparency, procurement continuing in over-threshold areas and poor data flows that made even basic safeguarding more difficult.'
Chief executive of Refugee Action, Tim Naor Hilton, said: ‘Sharing accurate and transparent data with councils is vital if the Home Office is to rebuild trust and co-operation with local leaders and reform the way people seeking asylum are housed.
‘Our research shows this data is also crucial to helping councils scale and tailor the right support in their areas, including how they keep people safe, as well as boosting community inclusion.'
Chief executive of think-tank Localis, Jonathan Werran, added: ‘It is simply wrong that councils should be kept in the dark like this.'
The Home Office said it did not comment on leaks, but a spokesperson suggested local authorities could still access ‘published statistics on the number of asylum seekers they are supporting'.
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association declined to comment.
