Shropshire is to receive a share of a £70 million migrant funded cash-pot to boost public services buckling under the pressure of mass immigration.

The Government’s Migration Impact Fund is entirely financed by a migrant tax on student and work visas and is being ploughed directly into communities over two years.

Telford & Wrekin Council is to receive £183,500 in 2009/10 and £61,500 (provisional) in 2010/11 to ease the pressures on school, health and housing services.

The decision to impose the levy from outside the EU – between £50 and £200 – follows pressure from councils across the country with fast-growing migrant populations, some of which warned they would have to raise council tax to cope with the extra pressure on public services.

Local authorities and voluntary organisations have identified projects that will make the biggest difference in dealing with the impact of migration in their areas.

This includes money to pay for extra multilingual teachers in schools to help cater for the dozens of languages spoken in some schools and free-up more teaching time for the benefit of all pupils.

Funding from the MIF will also mean migrants will be paying for their own English classes – cutting public services’ translation costs.

Cash will be used to help foreign nationals register with local GPs to relieve the pressures on A and E departments where they are currently turning up for treatment.