Brent Council willing to take in at least 50 Syrian families 'if necessary'

Leader of Brent Council Muhammed Butt has told the Kilburn Times that the Council is willing to take at least 50 Syrian families into the borough LINK

However his comments were short on detail of how this would be done.

He told the Times:

It’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we do help the people who are in need.
I’m looking to take in 50 families if necessary, I have no problem with that and if we need to increase it we’ll wait for the announcement from the government about the resources open to us.

He said it was too early to say how the refugees would be settled in and housed.

What we need to do first is make a plan, we need to get our partners on board and that the council and the departments are working together so that we can identify the areas of need.

I‘ve had conversations with officers about starting to take the appropriate measures to support people coming in.

He went on to say that there was some time as “people will not be coming in tomorrow.”

At the time of writing 351 residents had signed an on-line petition calling for Brent to admit 50 families LINK

The petition was publicised on Wembley Matters and social media over the weekend. LINK