On Tuesday 14th July , Birmingham City Council will discuss a motion put forward by the Reform UK group, requiring the Council to abandon its Council of Sanctuary status and cease supporting people coming to the city in search of safety and welcome. The local City of Sanctuary group has provided their response, which you can read here.

Reform’s Motion Won’t Fix a Single Problem Facing Birmingham
Reform’s proposal to withdraw Birmingham from the City of Sanctuary scheme is a solution looking for a problem.
The motion claims Birmingham should focus its resources on local residents. We agree.
The problem is that withdrawing from these schemes would not free up resources for local services, reduce pressure on housing, or change immigration policy.
The funding used to support refugee resettlement is provided by the Home Office and is ringfenced for that purpose. If Birmingham walks away, the money does not get redirected to bin collections, social care or neighbourhood services. It simply disappears from the city. Jobs funded through these programmes could be lost and Birmingham would receive nothing in return.
The motion also creates a misleading impression about who is being supported.
Many of the people helped through these programmes are Afghans who worked alongside British forces and whose lives were put at risk after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Birmingham agreed to help a relatively small number of these families rebuild their lives safely in the city.
This is not a programme involving thousands of people. Since 2015, Birmingham’s resettlement schemes have supported around 1,100 people in total.
Most importantly, City of Sanctuary has no power over immigration policy, asylum decisions, housing allocations or where people are accommodated. Those decisions are made by central government.
So what would Reform’s proposal actually achieve?
It would not change immigration policy.
It would not release new money for local services.
It would simply mean Birmingham turns away government funding, loses experienced staff and walks away from helping a small number of people who are already legally entitled to be here.
That is not putting Birmingham first.
It is making Birmingham worse off while pretending otherwise.