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Councils should get a cut of the Government's cash generated by migrant workers, the Local Government Association has said. LGA chairman, Sir Simon Milton, said migrant workers were generating £40bn a year, but the cash wasn't finding its way down to the local level. The resulting pressure on services, such as children's services and housing, ‘can lead to tension and conflict', he said. ‘Official statistics on how many migrants are coming and where they are going are inadequate. No-one has a real grasp of where or for how long migrants are settling, so much-needed funding for local services isn't getting to the right places,' the LGA chairman claimed. He called on the Government to improve information on migrants to ‘gain a much clearer picture of migrant movements'. ‘This would allow the right amount of money to get to the right places, ensuring decent public services for all,' Sir Simon said. ‘A proportion of the additional revenue that the exchequer gains from migrants could be put towards a contingency fund for councils which are coming under particular pressure.' Sir Simon's comments follow new figures which revealed 713,450 national insurance numbers were issued to foreign nationals in 2006/07. The figures, from the House of Commons library, represent up to 10% of the working population in some parts of the country. It also warned there was increasing evidence of large numbers of national insurance numbers being issued by the Government to illegal immigrants. Shadow secretary for work and pensions, Chris Grayling, said the rise was ‘quite extraordinary'. He said: ‘It indicates the system is either completely out of control or completely flawed. It seems ministers have little idea of what's going on.'

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FINANCE

LGA stakes claim for 'cash from migrants'

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