Add your name and councillor email address, then submit the message below to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary. If the form allows, include your council and ward so they can see the range of communities represented.
The message will be sent in your name. Please review it before submitting.
Dear Prime Minister and Home Secretary,
I am writing as a Labour councillor to ask you to ensure that any changes to settlement are fair, proportionate and clear.
People in our communities have built their lives around the rules in place when they began their settlement journey. Extending the qualifying period for those already here could leave families facing years of additional uncertainty. The proposed long route for refugees also risks making it harder for people who have been granted protection to rebuild stable lives.
Please:
- Protect people already living in the UK who have planned their lives around the rules they were given. A person’s arrival date alone should not determine whether their route to settlement is changed; transition arrangements should also protect people who arrived in or after 2021.
- Set reasonable and achievable timeframes, so that new requirements do not leave people in temporary status for decades.
- Recognise contribution in its different forms, including paid work at different income levels, caring responsibilities, raising a family and service to the community. Make fair exceptions for people who cannot meet an earnings requirement.
- Do not penalise people for lawful claims to public support made before any new rules take effect. Provide safeguards for people facing illness, disability, caring responsibilities or other serious hardship.
- Protect children who grow up here from spending their childhood in prolonged uncertainty, and ensure families and refugees have clear and realistic routes to settlement.
- Publish assessments of the effects on equality, children, poverty, social care and local authorities, along with clear transition rules, before implementing changes.
People need to know where they stand and be treated fairly. I urge you to take these principles into account when deciding the final settlement policy.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr [First name] [Surname]
Labour Councillor for [Ward]
[Council name]
[Email address]