Andy Burnham says ‘we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country’ that house refugees and asylum seekers – and ‘all parts of the country need to work, to play their part’. His comments came after Piddington, a publess, shopless 400-person village in Oxfordshire symbolically voted to secede from the United Kingdom over proposals to house 1,250 asylum seekers in a nearby Ministry of Defence site.
England currently supports 85,000 asylum seekers in its 296 local authorities, an average of 14.5 for every 10,000 residents. Where are they – and is Burnham right that they’re only in the poorest communities in the country?
There’s a great deal of variation: in some councils, the number approaches 50 per 10,000 residents. In ten councils, there are no supported asylum seekers at all.
More deprived areas tend to have more supported asylum seekers. The most deprived tenth of local authorities have, on average, 30 asylum seekers per 10,000 residents, the least deprived tenth fewer than four.
Of course, there is variation in how well-off people are within councils. Those which tend to be more uniformly deprived have on average 25 asylum seekers per 10,000 residents and those that are more uniformly well-off 5.5. Rural areas, which tend to be better-off, host fewer asylum seekers compared with predominantly urban areas.
