Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to reimburse (a) Thurrock council and (b) all other councils for the costs of providing support to legal migrant families who otherwise are designated as having No Recourse to Public Funds.

The Government does not hold central data on the number of households or individuals with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) receiving support from local authorities.

There are no plans to introduce a dedicated reimbursement scheme for local authority expenditure on NRPF support and so no estimate of the cost of doing so.

In general, the expectation of the UK Government is that migrants who are given leave to be in the UK with an NRPF condition should be able to maintain and accommodate themselves and their dependants without recourse to public funds.

The NRPF condition is an important plank of immigration policy designed to avoid excessive demands upon the UK’s finite resources and reassure the public that controlled immigration brings real benefits to the UK.

The Government keeps the funding available to local authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement under review. The final 2026-27 Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England in 2026-27, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26. The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.