Agenda item

The report looks at the impact of uncertainty on Brent residents and services following the European Union referendum.

Anne Kittappa (the Council’s Senior Policy Officer, Strategy and Partnerships) introduced the report, which looked at the impact of uncertainty on Brent residents and services following the European Union referendum.  She noted that the 2011 Census, indicated that 11.5% of Brent’s population were born in Europe. This share had spiked in 2014 and then decreased over time by 2015, with the number of babies born to European mothers declining as well. Mrs Kittappa highlighted that European nationals had been overrepresented in the Electoral Register as they constituted 16% of the electorate in January 2017, with the majority of the population being concentrated in Wembley Central and Alperton wards. She noted that Brent had been aware of a small proportion of cases of fraud when Brazilian, Russian and Ukrainian nationals had been buying counterfeit Portuguese and Hungarian passports respectively. In terms of employment, European nationals constituted a small proportion (up to 13%) of staff at the London North West Healthcare National Health Service Trust, Central and North West London National Health Service Foundation Trust and London Ambulance Service. Mrs Kittappa noted that the proportion of applications to nursing courses made by European Nationals had declined over five years from 3.1% to 2.5%.

Members enquired about the next steps following the report and Carolyn Downs (the Council’s Chief Executive) asked if numbers of European nationals employed by the Council were available. David Veale (the Council’s Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development) said that ethnicity data was collected but not nationalities data so the team would look at that information might be collected.

As the report focused on European nationals living in Brent, it was suggested that it should be renamed to ‘European Union Referendum and the Impact of Uncertainty on European Union Nationals Living in Brent’.

The Committee heard that the number of rough sleepers had increased with Romanian citizens constituting the largest proportion of rough sleepers. Members highlighted that homelessness and casual illicit labour (as per paragraph 11.4 of the report; page 27 to the Agenda) were linked and enquired how the Council worked with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Police to tackle employers who hired casual labourers. This led to a discussion about potential services targeted at Eastern Europeans which could provide stability for these communities, and the work and recommendations arising from the Task & Finish Group on Eastern European communities, the scope of which was to identify and address socio-economic barriers and challenges facing these communities. Members were reminded that a report was presented to them on 6 December 2016 but that a progress update would be provided later in the year.

Ms Downs highlighted that key issues Brent had to address included overcrowding in Houses of Multiple Occupation and street drinking. She said that the Council had not been connecting well with Eastern European communities and pointed out that these communities were probably under-represented in the workforce. Pascoe Sawyers (the Council’s Head of Strategy and Partnerships) informed the Committee that a Community Engagement strategy was being developed and one of its key themes would be engaging with European communities. He also proposed a session for Members, building on this report, on the implications and impact of Brexit in the Borough once more information had been gathered.

It was noted that addressing the issue of hate crime (paragraph 8.1 of the report on page 25 to the Agenda) had been a priority for Councillor Miller, Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities.

RESOLVED that

(i)    The contents of the European Union Referendum and the Impact of Uncertainty on Brent Residents report, be noted;

(ii)  The report be renamed to ‘European Union Referendum and the Impact of Uncertainty on European Union Nationals Living in Brent’; and

(iii) A report examining whether Brent, as a borough, would be worse off in the aftermath of the European Union Referendum be provided to a future meeting of the Committee;

Councillor Mahmood left the meeting at 6:59 pm.