Surrey County Council are to house more than 130 Syrian refugee families over the next five years, according to council leader David Hodge.

Redhill councillor Jonathan Essex asked Mr Hodge how many families are to be resettled as part of the government's Syrian vulnerable person's relocation scheme at a meeting of the full council on Tuesday, December 6.

Mr Hodge replied that 137 families had been supported so far in the county in partnership with some of the Surrey boroughs.

He said: "Surrey responded positively to the Government’s invitation to participate in the Scheme, with work being led by our District and Borough colleagues and actively supported by County Council services.

"The majority of district and boroughs have committed to taking a set number of families per year, reflecting the limited affordable accommodation available.

"Projections are for up to 137 families to be settled over the five years of the programme.

"This compares very favourably with other areas of the south east and other counties.

"There is a strong and proactive multi-agency group co-ordinating the programme across Surrey, including participating district and boroughs, county council services, schools, health, mental health, the police and voluntary and faith sector.

"We carefully balance the commitment we have already made to the Syrian programme with our agreed priorities and commitments to the county and its residents." 

The Government announced in September last year that a special resettlement scheme to relocate Syrians in Britain would be expanded to allow 20,000 people into the UK by 2020.

Refugee Council head of advocacy Dr Lisa Doyle said: "We're really encouraged that districts and communities in Surrey have stepped forward and offered to welcome Syrian refugees.

"These offers of help have meant that the Government has now said that it’s confident that Britain’s target of resettling 20,000 people by 2020 will be met if all of the existing pledges made across the country are met.

"Of course, we know that the conflict in Syria hasn’t gone away and we’ve all heard the grim stories coming out of Aleppo over the past few weeks so it’s really important that all of the pledges made are realised over the coming years.

"What we’d really like to see is the Government building on these efforts and continuing to resettle refugees from all over the world at this level beyond 2020.

"That means continuing to work with communities and councils across the country to ensure that they’re equipped to continue welcoming refugees and helping them rebuild their lives."