Conservative Letter Fails to Mention 100% Rebate for Asylum Costs in Dorset - Channel 4's "Fact Check" Investigates (www.channel4/news/factcheck)

8.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 21st Apr 2005

Conservative leader Michael Howard sent a series of letters to voters in marginal constituencies linking the cost of asylum with rises in council tax since 1997. They contrast the rise in Band D council tax bills with the amount local councils in the area have spent on asylum, which Mr Howard says is "money that could have been spent on essential local services". However, the letters and advert make no mention of the fact that most of that money is reimbursed to councils by central government.

And in some of those years, councils had a greater responsibility for asylum seekers because of legislation passed when Mr Howard was Home Secretary.

FactCheck has seen letters sent out in Mid Dorset & North Poole, South Wirral, Teignbridge in Devon, and Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire.

Letter from Michael Howard to constituents, 18 April 2005 states:

"Chaotic asylum system has cost Poole Council and Dorset County Council £1,926,240 since 1997 - money that could have been spent on essential local services. No wonder a typical hardworking family in a Band D property in Poole and Dorset now pays £595.57 more on their council tax than they did in 1997."

The calculations

The Conservatives have arrived at their figure by adding up the total spending by local authorities for each year since 1997.

In the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, where the Liberal Democrats are defending a small 384 majority from the Tories, Mr Howard's letter puts the cost since 1997 for the Dorset county and Poole district councils at £1,926,240. Council tax has risen by £595.57 in the same period, he says. These figures appear to have been taken an average of any costs from all 8 constituencies in Dorset over the past 7 1/2 years, not the costs incurred by the one constituency of Mid Dorset.

In Teignbridge, where the Lib Dems have majority of about 3,000, it says asylum has cost Devon County Council £584,000 and council tax has risen by £640.61

In Wirral South, where Labour have a 5,000 majority over the Tories, it says Wirral Council has spent £1,233,000 on asylum compared to a council tax rise of £363.96.

And in Rossendale and Darwen, where Labour's majority is again about 5,000, it says two councils have spent £4,479,000 since 1997 while council tax has risen by £484.89.

But most of the money these councils spent on supporting asylum will have been returned to them.

"Less than change in weather"

Home Office figures collected by the Refugee Council show that in 2003/4 for example, councils spent £491m on supporting asylum seekers, but £403m, or 82 per cent, was then reimbursed. In the previous year the proportion was 84 per cent, and the year before that it was 95 per cent.

A Refugee Council spokesman told FactCheck: "It's not the first time that people have sought to make the link between asylum and local authority costs going up. It is wrong to say that money that local authorities spend on asylum seekers is funded by local taxpayers.

"The government is quite clear that it is a national responsibility and money local authorities spend is reimbursed."

Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics told FactCheck: "If authorities accept asylum seekers through the dispersal scheme then they get central government money to help.

"If they do have any costs to bear themselves, then it will be de minimus, compared to the cost of a change in the weather, or a budget of millions of pounds."

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