Home Office to miss target for contacting families given exceptional leave to remain
A scheme to grant 15,000 asylum-seeking families exceptional leave to remain in the UK descended further into chaos this week as councils revealed they face a £50m bill for the project.

The news came as the Home Office confirmed it would miss its 30 April deadline, set on 24 October 2003 by home secretary David Blunkett, for contacting all the families involved.

The Association of London Government has demanded an urgent meeting with the new minister for immigration, Des Browne, to ask for help in footing the £50m bill. £40m of that will be borne by London boroughs, where the majority of eligible asylum seekers live.

The money will be spent on transferring the refugees' existing accommodation, which is mainly provided on a temporary basis by social services departments, into standard long-term tenancies.

It will also pay for the families to move into new homes where necessary. The sum includes administration and legal costs.

A source from a south London council, who did not wish to be named, said: "When the government announced these exemptions without any warnings or consultation, we recognised that this would cause real problems to town halls across London. We warned ministers what to expect and urged them to rethink but they just ignored us.

"Now it looks as though council taxpayers in London will be forced to foot the bill."

We warned ministers what to expect but they just ignored us. Now taxpayers will foot the bill

Source at south London council

In a separate development, the Home Office has abandoned its commitment to contact all the eligible families by the end of this month to tell them they can apply for leave to remain (see HT 31 October 2003, page 9).

Only 2000 of the estimated 15,000 families had been granted leave by the end of March and the ALG now expects the programme to drag on into June.

A government document seen by Housing Today said the programme should be complete by 30 April but a Home Office spokeswoman denied that the department had ever set a specific date.

She added: "We have always said that we expected it to take around six months to assess the bulk of those who may be eligible.

"This remains the case and we will be provide an update on progress in due course."