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The Live Aid singer has offered to house four refugee families, saying he feels "profound shame" about Britain's response to the migrant crisis. But his proposal was shot down by Local Government Association chief David Simmonds, who said he doubted it would actually materialise. He said: "Unfortunately I think it is a bit pie in the sky. "If Bob Geldof is willing to make that offer I'm sure his local council, which will already have a lot of people on its housing waiting list, will be very happy to bring them around this afternoon."

GETTY Bob Geldof has offered to house four refugee families

Geldof said he would put three families up at his sprawling home in Kent and one more at his London flat. Explaining the offer, the campaigning musician said ordinary people should "get stuck in" and not "palm off" responsibility for housing refugees onto the government. His comments came as it emerged that 40 councils have agreed to house more Syrian refugees. David Cameron has promised Britain will take in "thousands more" people from the war-torn country amid growing criticism of his handling of the crisis. However, Mr Simmonds warned that local authorities will need to be given significantly more funding if they are to cope with a fresh influx of asylum seekers.

BBC The singer's offer was savaged as 'pie in the sky' by LGA chief David Simmonds

He praised the generosity of the British public, who have donated hundreds of thousand of pounds to charity aid appeals and have collected food, clothes, tents and even offered up a room in their homes to refugees. But he added that the reality is that it costs millions of pounds to house and support asylum seekers while their applications are being processed. He also cast doubt over whether people who have offered up their homes to refugees would in reality be willing to support them for the years it often takes for applications to be decided.

Unfortunately I think it is a bit pie in the sky David Simmonds, head of the LGA

He said: "To put it in context, one of the appeals was very impressive in that it raised £200,000 in 24 hours. "But that is roughly what England's councils spend in a day supporting households whose asylum applications have been refused, never mind the rest. "The cost of providing the services we would need to provide is clearly very significant. Generous offers are very good, but if it takes several years to process somebody's asylum application that person is not allowed to work. "Are those people who are opening those homes genuinely willing to have a stranger from a war-torn country living in their house potentially for three or four years while a decision is made about whether they will be allowed to stay?"

AP Thousands of migrants are heading to Europe from war-torn Syria