Thousands of EU citizens have already applied for settled status in South West London, according to the latest statistics released by the Home Office.

The data shows 35,110 EU citizens in Wandsworth have made the application, out of an estimated 41,000 affected residents in the borough.

Of those who have already applied, 7,030 were Italians, 4,300 were Spaniards and 3,620 were Poles.

Residents from the continent, excluding Irish citizens, need to have secured Settled Status in the UK by December 31, 2020.

At that point, the UK will have cut ties to the European Union’s Single Market, which will mean EU residents will start needing visas to live and work here.

At last week’s full council meeting, Wandsworth leader Ravi Govindia said the council had reached out to 23,000 EU nationals who made Wandsworth their home and had supported residents and council staff with ID checks free of charge.

He said: “From the very beginning of 2017 we decided that we needed to reassure these people, those who made Wandsworth their home, who are our neighbours, our friends, those who have contributed to our economy, that they should be helped to make their immigration status certain.”

He added 4,500 people had been helped through the council’s programme with Citizen’s Advice Wandsworth since 2017, and the borough had pledged to continue to offer support.

In January, the council increased funding for the service using some of the Brexit preparedness funding provided by central government.

This will be used to allow Citizen’s Advice Wandsworth to double its staffing and provide more one-to-one casework and support targeted outreach of hard-to-reach and vulnerable EU nationals.

According to the latest statistics for the number of applications received between August and December 31 last year, 12,580 EU residents in Kingston have applied for Settled Status.

This compares to approximately 14,000 EU citizens in the borough, according to the latest migration statistics data from the ONS.

In Richmond, 11,750 EU citizens out of an estimated 20,000 have made their application for Settled Status.

The UK is currently in the ‘Transition Period’ since we officially left the EU at the end of January.

This period lasts until December 31, 2020 – after which EU citizens who do not have Settled Status may experience difficulties using the NHS, renting a property or applying for a job, according to the Citizens Advice Bureau’s website.