Councils in the capital have missed out on £130m of funding because of continuing problems with population statistics, according to London Councils. The organisation blamed the funding shortfall on the Office of National Statistics (ONS), and welcomed a report by the treasury committee which said its population data was ‘not fit for purpose'. The committee report called for the International Passenger Survey, which measures changes in population to be scrapped and replaced with a more comprehensive system. A recent change to the way the ONS calculates population statistics meant London's population projection was cut by more than 100,000, in direct contradiction to evidence on the ground from the boroughs. ‘We are pleased that a cross-party parliamentary committee has recognised the inadequacies of the ONS's completely misleading population statistics,' said London Councils chairman, Merrick Cockell. ‘The ONS's failure to collate robust population figures has already been hugely damaging to the capital's public services. ‘It is essential that the Government urgently remedies these failings before ordinary Londoners who rely on our services lose out,' he said.
