A £50 million fund that provided hundreds of thousands of pound to ease pressures on public services in Bradford caused by its large influx of immigrants has been axed.

The Migration Impacts Fund was paid for by immigrants themselves through a levy on visas.

The funds were originally set up to help prevent community tensions boiling over – but Government officials believe scrapping the fund could save £16m.

The money has funded sessions to improve migrants’ English, help them navigate education and public services and provide outreach workers. Last year Bradford Council got £225,000 from the Migration Impacts Fund for four schemes while a further £200,000 went to West Yorkshire Police.

A Council spokesman said: “The money was used on various schemes to assist newly-arrived European Union migrants coming to the district. It went to Education Bradford, Horton Housing Association, Parity Associates and the Northern Refugee Centre.

“A whole host of schemes were funded from helping children and adults learn English to providing people with skills to find jobs and become good citizens and good neighbours.”

Karl Oxford is director of Parity Associates, based at Carlisle Business Centre in Bradford, which received £65,000 from the fund.

The group used its money to develop health and wellbeing events among migrant communities, to raise the profile of migrant-run businesses in a bid to maintain jobs and create new ones and to empower migrants to understand and take more of an active role in how local services are planned.

Mr Oxford said: “The money was useful and has played a part, but it wasn’t mega-bucks compared with the work we still have to do. However, we hope that what we have achieved so far will be continued by the communities themselves so the wider unique benefits of what these communities can bring to society can be realised.”

West Yorkshire Police used its £200,000 funding to enlist students as translators rather than having to pay fees for experts to travel from outside the area.

Emily Wilson, West Yorkshire Police Project Co-ordinator for the funding, said: “West Yorkshire Police applied for two years of funding and were not expecting a continuation of this.”