YORK council boss Keith Aspden has written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman calling for extra funds to be made available for asylum seekers arriving in York.

As reported yesterday, as many as 450 asylum seekers are expected to start arriving in the city very shortly.

They will be put up in a hotel while their claims for asylum are assessed.

The council says those coming to York will be 'couples and small family groups'.

They will be be entitled to use local health services, and children will be given access to education in the city.

"This could be through temporary attendance at local schools or through other means, dependent on the needs of those placed here," the council says.

But while the NHS locally has been given a 'small amount of funding' by the Home Office to go towards the cost of health care, the city council has received no extra funding at all.

A council spokesperson said council leader Keith Aspden had written to the Home Secretary 'requesting that additional funding is made available to provide support for essential services'.

York Central MP Rachael Maskell, meanwhile, was due to meet with Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick today to raise the issue.

The council has not yet been told how long the asylum seekers coming to York have been in the UK - or where they are from.

But most asylum seekers coming to the UK in the year up to March were from Iran, Albania, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Twenty-four hour security is being arranged at the York hotel where the asylum seekers will be based, and North Yorkshire Police have been informed and are 'working closely with partner agencies', the council says.

Asylum seekers will receive an allowance from central government of £40.80 per person per week to cover their living expenses, but will not be allowed to work or claim benefits.

They could spend up to three months at the York Hotel before being moved out as other accommodation elsewhere become available under the Home Office's dispersal programme. This will not be in York, however.

The hotel accommodation will be purely temporary, the council says - and there is currently 'no dispersal accommodation within York'.

Because individual asylum seekers will only be staying in the city for a comparatively short time, it is likely that the people staying in the hotel may change over time, the council says.

Cllr Aspden said York was just one of many cities across the country chosen to temporarily host asylum seekers while they await the outcome of their asylum applications.

He urged the city's people to be 'kind, welcoming and considerate'.

“York is proud to be a City of Sanctuary," he said. "We’ve proven again and again that at times of crisis, York is there to support the most vulnerable amongst us.

"In the true spirit of York, let’s be kind, welcoming and considerate to these displaced and vulnerable people as they arrive in our city to seek a temporary home after what will have been unimaginably difficult experiences.”

But he added that he would continue to express 'concerns' to the Government about the lack of financial support.

"Whilst I’m immensely proud of York and our generous spirit as we prepare to support those arriving, we have and will continue to express our concerns to the Government about the lack of any additional funding or support provided to the city and the many organisations working on this, particularly to support education and health needs of the families," he said.