East European influx 'could trigger race riots in villages'

A special commission says community tensions are now more likely to overheat in rural areas than northern mill towns with a history of troubles.

Councils will be told they must draw up integration plans if they are to ward off civil disturbance.

The findings by the Government's Commission on Integration and Cohesion, established by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly a year ago, will disturb Whitehall.

The authorities have so far focused on calming tensions between white communities and long- standing ethnic minority groups.

These erupted in 2001 with rioting in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford.

Now they are being told to switch the focus to small towns and villages put under enormous pressure by the influx of at least 630,000 Eastern Europeans since May 2004.

Ed Cox, a member of the commission, told the Local Government Chronicle: "The analysis would suggest cohesion tensions in the future are more likely to be experienced in unexpected places where 'diversity' is new.

"Councils in these areas need to be ahead of the game and have in place cohesion and integration plans of a different kind from those of the northern mill towns."

Mr Cox, who is also head of policy at the Local Government Information Unit, singled out the East of England as one area which may be at particular risk.

Professor Ted Cantle, head of the Institute of Community Cohesion, said the arrival of new ethnic groups in communities already grappling with changes to local economies or facing housing shortages could trigger racial tension.

Professor Cantle, who wrote the Government reports into the 2001 riots, added: "There are deeper social and psychological impacts of people feeling loss for some kind of past way of life. Where you have new inward migration, people can latch on to that. But it is important to distinguish between the trigger and the underlying reason."

Last month, Freedom of Information requests by the Daily Mail revealed that an unprecedented influx from the former Eastern Bloc has increased the population of some towns by almost 10 per cent since 2004.

In Boston, Lincolnshire, one in every ten residents is now an Eastern European.

Other towns - including Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, Northampton and parts of London - have seen their population increase by around 5 per cent.

In the East of England, there have been more than 60,000 arrivals.

But even these figures are likely to be a dramatic underestimate, as they do not include the children or partners of those registered to work here.

The self-employed are also not counted in the figures.

Council leaders have warned that schools, hospitals and social services are all struggling to cope, despite the valuable contribution being made by many of the new arrivals.

A spokesman for the Commission on Integration and Cohesion said last night: "There are challenges associated with migration, but it is important that these are reported and debated in a calm and rational way that does not exaggerate the scale of the challenge.

"Migration has helped to transform our economy and enrich the country both socially and culturally, but of course it is right we look at what more we can do to promote greater integration and cohesion."