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City Counts (Pounds) 10m Cost of Census Error; Council Says Official Figure 20,000 Too Low

Posted on: Thursday, 27 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

GLASGOW could lose up to (pounds) 10million in Government cash because its population is underestimated, it was claimed today.

Figures from the Registrar General put that the city's population is 577,090, a drop of just 260 from the previous year.

Despite the small decrease, council leader Charles Gordon disputes the figure and believes it is up to 20,000 people fewer than actually live in the city.

With grant aid calculated on population, he is concerned the city is losing out because of a "crude" method of distributing Government money.

Councillor Gordon believes the flaw is a continuation of a mistake in the 2001 Census which reduced the city's population by almost 30,000.

Although council officials agreed the previous estimate of over 607,000 was too high, they insisted the reduction was too severe and the total was around 600,000.

And Councillor Gordon maintains the new figure is also well out of alignment and he points to mistakes made in Manchester which also challenged the census figures.

"We have no confidence in the Registrar's figures," he said.

He pointed to the 2500 new houses being built annually, the 2100 asylum seekers opting to stay in the city, the new development sites being allocated to builders and the regeneration of areas like Garthamlock, Oatlands and Robroyston.

He agreed that there was a "churn" among the population and that some new properties were being taken up by people whose houses were being demolished as part of the city's regeneration.

But he added: "The flight to the suburbs has been arrested."

Councillor Gordon has ordered officials to work on a formula which will more accurately define the city's population.

Elsewhere, the Registrar's figures also show a tiny increase in the number of people in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area. It has risen from 866,080 to 866,370.

Other parts of the report show the north-east saw the largest shifts in population between 2002-03 with a move from urban to more rural living.

The sharpest decrease was in Aberdeen where the number of people living in the city fell by 2670, or 1.3%, to 206,600.

Other council areas to lose out between 2002-03 were Midlothian, which lost 1% of its people, and Dundee city whose population fell 0.8%.

Edinburgh saw just a 0.1% rise, to 448,370.

brian.currie@ eveningtimes.co.uk

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