Croydon councillors have issued a plea for the government to fund the £7 million annual costs of looking after unaccompanied asylum seeking children in the borough.

Cllr Alisa Flemming said Croydon Council would face a financial crisis unless help was forthcoming.

At a council meeting on Monday night the cabinet member for children and young people said: “The council year on year is spending more than it is funded to deliver.

“Even though we’re subject to an enhanced rate and because we have the Home Office here it still doesn’t cover the cost of providing the much needed support these young people need.”

She said that the government’s National Transfer Scheme had more than 170 children on the waiting list to transfer them to other parts of the country, with 30 of them in Croydon.

The scheme was created in 2016 to encourage all councils to volunteer to take in asylum seeking children to take the pressure off places like Croydon where there are more.

Cllr Flemming said: “30  of them are Croydon children and they desperately need permanency in their lives at the earliest opportunity.

“Regrettably the scheme is grinding to a halt and we as a local authority are being asked to continue to take up the responsibility for these young people.

“Again funding for this decision has not been agreed or fully costed.

“We are facing what can only be described as a potential financial crisis in the need to support some of our most needy people.”

New rules brought in last year means the council now has responsibility for young asylum seekers until they are 25 where before it was 21.

Cllr Flemming told the meeting that people are able to make a ‘retrospective claim’.

“The government has given us £60,000 [per child] but that is nothing near to the amount that we are spending, we have spent more than £7 million,” she said.

The motion was seconded by Cllr Patsy Cummings and backed by the Tory opposition.

The leader of Croydon Conservatives Cllr Tim Pollard said: “I’ve been a councilor for 16 years and in all of that time we’ve been in discussion with the Home Office about unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

“The government of whatever flavour it has been doesn’t want to pick up any more costs than it absolutely has to.

“And similarly the council has never seen why it should be funding what is essentially a national service.”

He added: “We are going to support you on this motion and help you in whatever way we need.”

The motion was backed unanimously by the council. It read: “Croydon’s unaccompanied asylum seeking children are underfunded by central government by £7 million annually. This council calls on the Home Secretary to urgently address this crisis.”