CENTRAL London councils need extra funding to cope with pressure on schools and housing, and organised crime, caused by eastern European immigrants, an MP has claimed.

Mark Field (Con, Cities of London & Westminster) warned that high numbers of immigrants had come into London who were not included in official statistics.

As a result, Westminster council was missing out on funding - which is based partly on population figures - while trying to deal with a range of social problems.

He said: "Strong evidence suggests that pockets of petty theft in the west end and persistent organised begging operations are being initiated by Romanian migrants.

"In fact, after several constituents complained to me specifically about aggressive begging in shopping districts, I had to raise the issue independently with City of Westminster police."

The MP added: "Unfortunately, begging seems to be just one arm of organised crime that originates from eastern Europe.

"Automated teller machine fraud is another example of such crime, which, anecdotally, the local police have told me is conducted almost exclusively by Romanian gangs."

Mr Field raised his concerns as he led a debate in the House of Commons about council funding.

He said that research had shown Westminster has more than 13,000 illegal migrants within its boundaries at any one time, as well as 11,000 short-term migrants who are not registered in official statistics..

He called on the Treasury to provide extra funding for authorities coping with large numbers of migrants, and to develop new and better ways of counting the populations in each area.

Many short-term migrants came from the "accession eight" of "A8" countries, which joined the European Union in 2004, said Mr Field.

These include the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Others came from Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007.

He said: "Many A8 migrants choose to live in private sector housing, and that has increased rents, applying further pressure to an already oversubscribed social housing market."

He added: "The two most common issues in my constituency postbag are immigration and housing, and I reckon that I receive between 10 and 20 letters a week from families either struggling to obtain council or housing association property or hoping desperately for a transfer to a larger home."

And migration was putting pressure on schools, he claimed.

"On education provision, short-term migration and the large number of migrants who move around the country seeking work cause significant problems in relation to the churn in schools.

"Such churn can leave teachers coping with a diverse class that has vastly different abilities in numeracy and literacy, and diverse cultural and language needs."

Failure to help councils cope with these problems could lead to racism and tensions between ethnic groups, he said.

"I accept that migration will always be a contentious issue, despite the clear economic benefits of hard-working migrants coming to our country.

"Perceived threats to an existing settled community from new arrivals will serve only to increase those tensions.

"Unfortunately, unless the Government properly fund local authorities, such threats may come to fruition."

Local Government Minister Iain Wright told him: "We recognise that some local authorities are experiencing more challenges than others in dealing with recent levels of international migration.

"My Department is working with local authorities to manage the transitional impacts of migration on local areas and communities."

Related links: Mark Field, text of full debate.

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