U.K. Should Cut Salary Threshold for Top Migrants, Advisers Say

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Boris Johnson’s British government should lower its proposed minimum salary threshold of 30,000 pounds for migrants and create a new route for the most talented people who don’t have a job offer, in order to avoid worker shortages after Brexit, a group of advisers said Tuesday.

The U.K. is due to leave the European Union in four days’ time and the government has promised to end free movement by EU citizens. Immigration was a key issue during the Brexit referendum and Prime Minister Johnson asked the government’s Migration Advisory Committee to review its planned points-based system and its proposed 30,000 pounds salary threshold.

On Tuesday, the panel of advisers recommended that the general salary threshold should be about 25,600 pounds. That would allow most employers to continue to hire migrants at existing wage levels. It also urged the government to introduce a route for skilled workers without a job offer as part of the points-based system.

Committee chairman Alan Manning said its own recommendations would likely to reduce future growth of the U.K. population and economy compared to the freedom of movement within the EU. It would deliver very small increases in gross domestic product per capita, and slightly reduce pressure on the National Health Service and social housing. However, it would increase pressure on social care due to staff shortages.

“No perfect system exists and there are unavoidable and difficult trade-offs, he said,” according to a statement.

The government is expected to review the findings before making a final decision and bringing forward a planned Immigration Bill in March. On Sunday, Home Secretary Priti Patel warned businesses they would have to change their approach to recruitment after Brexit. “They have been far too reliant on low skills and, quite frankly, cheap labor from the EU and we want to end that,” she told Sky’s Sophy Ridge show.

Business executives used to decades of unfettered movement of staff between the U.K. and the EU have urged the government to take a more flexible approach to immigration. Industries such as construction, hospitality, and the National Health Service are especially at risk from a lack of skilled foreign workers.

Source: Bloomberg Business News