North-South row over asylum seeker places

Greater Manchester interim mayor Tony Lloyd

GREATER Manchester interim mayor Tony Lloyd says too many asylum seekers are being housed in the region

Lloyd is calling on the Government to rethink the process. Over 5,100 asylum seekers have been housed in Greater Manchester in the first quarter of the year — more than six times the number in London. People are housed where suitable housing is available, says the Home Office.

Mr Lloyd said: “The need to give asylum is well established but what is unfair is the incompetence of central government in the way it has placed asylum seekers in this country so that some areas are receiving significant numbers. These put pressure on local schools and health resources. It’s not the asylum seekers’ fault, but of the Home Office’s spectacular inability to manage this process.”