Hertfordshire council City of Sanctuary refugee network membership, Digi Mart USA News (Hertfordshire, England): A dispute has been ongoing in Hertfordshire between the local Reform and Lib Dem groups over whether the county should join the City of Sanctuary Local Authority network. The Lib Dems, who are the minority leaders of the county council, pushed forward with plans to join earlier this year.
The City of Sanctuary Local Authority network costs £2,700 to join and involves councils sharing resources and practices for working with asylum seekers and refugees. Examples include tips for teaching English as a second language to refugees who speak a particular first language.
Councils that join commit to being a place of sanctuary, meaning they foster an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for refugees and asylum seekers.
The status is granted over a period of three years, after which councils must be reaccredited. Local authorities have a statutory duty to support asylum seekers in their catchment areas, with funding coming from the Asylum Dispersal Grant, which is ringfenced funding from the Home Office.
City of Sanctuary confirmed to The i Paper that the only monetary cost is the application fee of £900 for each of the three years the status lasts.
Reform UK figures in Hertfordshire have expressed concern that membership could open the door to additional spending. The motion to join the network was first brought by a Labour councillor last month and is being championed by the Lib Dem group that runs the council.
When the move was announced, some residents reacted with opposition, and a petition calling for a referendum on the decision reached 16,000 signatures on change.org, though it is unclear how many of the signatories are Hertfordshire residents.
The Reform UK group also opposed the move, attempting to block it at the scrutiny committee and accusing the council, which says there is no additional cost beyond the joining fee, of making a “flawed decision” based on “flawed data.” Cllr Doug Bainbridge, leader of the Reform group, said he believed membership could come with hidden additional costs. “It’s just a business decision.
£2700 doesn’t sound like a lot of money, and it’s not, but what about the rest of it? What’s the 5 year financial plan on this?
What does Hertfordshire get out of it?” He added that he believed the council was “being very shady about what the figures are.”
Ajanta Hilton, Liberal Democrat councillor and the council’s executive member for public safety, said resources would not be wasted on joining the network. “We absolutely will not be prioritising this,” she said, adding that “it’s not going to cost any additional resources apart from the £2700 accreditation fee.” Questions about council spending are particularly pressing in Hertfordshire at present, as council officials predict a £23.4m budget overspend based on the first three months of the 2026/27 financial year.
Residents of Stevenage interviewed by The i Paper had mixed reactions. Cameron, who gave only his first name, said he had not heard of the decision and, once it was explained, said, “In my opinion it doesn’t really benefit us.” He added that he would support joining if it meant better management of the asylum seekers already in Hertfordshire.
Colin Blagden, of the Standing Order pub, also said he had not heard of the scheme and did not want more asylum seekers coming to the county, but said, “Once they’re here we should help settle them in.”
Clive Hearmon, speaking from Stevenage’s old town, said he was previously unaware of the move but supported measures to help asylum seekers integrate. Jay Brown, also in the Standing Order, was unaware of the scheme and felt the council had bigger problems, such as litter and waste collection.
Several people who signed the petition declined to give their names and said they believed the scheme would mean more asylum seekers in Hertfordshire and that county resources were already stretched.
Hilton said the petition’s premise contained misinformation, noting that the number of asylum seekers in hotels had fallen from 1,507 in October 2025 to 503 in October 2026. She said the council joins many networks and accreditations, including the White Ribbon accreditation to demonstrate support for action against violence against women and girls.
She also criticized the Reform group, saying its repeated meetings and submission of 13 documents at 17:15 before a scrutiny meeting were taking up officer and councillor time.
Bainbridge said he had little faith in what other parties said and that the Reform group wanted to put townspeople who had lived in the area for generations first. A spokesperson for City of Sanctuary said England still lacks a national integration strategy, leaving councils to fill the gap.
The spokesperson said the scheme helps councils make good use of central government funding that comes with each person placed in communities by the Home Office, and that it neither determines who comes to Britain nor creates new immigration entitlements. “Integration is not an optional extra: it is how we build cohesive communities, prevent isolation and ensure public services work effectively for everyone.”
