Stockport council has repeatedly written to the home secretary about its concerns over the housing and welfare of asylum seekers in the borough - but says it is still waiting for something to be done. The authority has contacted the government three times since November 2021 - most recently in July last year - expressing fears for both the migrants and the strain being put on public services.
In the July letter he noted that Stockport had 550 asylum seekers living in two hotels ‘resulting in real risks to local services, communities and the asylum seekers themselves’. But council leader Mark Hunter says that, to date, there has been no response from the department - despite town hall bosses stressing the gravity of the situation.
“The government just seems to be hoping it goes away or resolves itself in some miraculous way,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. “We’ve not even had the courtesy of a formal reply.”
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