A tightened skilled worker visa setup will “impose more pressures” on construction SMEs already struggling to recruit enough workers, experts have warned.
Plans to tighten access to the skilled worker visa in particular could stymie attempts to plug a widening skills gap, lawyers said in response to a new immigration white paper published on Monday (12 May).
Plans have been put in motion to tighten access to the skilled worker visa, to increase the salary thresholds for workers from aboard, and to impose higher fees on businesses for employing workers from abroad, in a new immigration white paper.
John Hayes, managing partner of employment and regulatory specialist law firm Constantine Law, told Construction News the measures will have a “massive, probably adverse impact on the construction sector”.
“It is just going to make it harder [for construction firms] to find the right people,” he added.
“This is bad news for employers for whom there is already an existing skill shortage, and is going to impose more administrative pressures on employers who need to get in the right level of skills moving forward.”
The new white paper, entitled ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’, tightens access to the skilled worker visa so that it is only open to workers with at least a degree-level qualification.
Skilled worker visas will only be open to workers on or above Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) 6 – whereas it was previously open to workers on RQF3.
The report said the number of skilled worker visas had nearly doubled since 2019 after the previous government changed the threshold to RQF3 in 2020.
“The big increase in work visas reflects not just the weakening of controls in 2020, but also a failure over many years to tackle issues with pay, conditions, skills, and training in the UK labour market meaning too many sectors have remained reliant on international recruitment instead of being able to source the talent they need here in the UK,” it said.
Raising the skill level requirement to RQF6 would see the number of eligible occupations reduced by around 180, according to the white paper.
Louise Haycock, partner at immigration law firm Fragomen, warned reverting to RQF6 could “cut off critical supply in sectors [like construction] where alternative UK talent pipelines do not yet exist”.
Businesses will, however, be able to recruit workers on lower RQFs “on a time-limited basis”, via a new temporary shortage list being drawn up by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the Home Office on immigration.
But Haycock warned the change “is potentially at the cost of compromising sector development”.
“Construction businesses require skills across a panoply of levels – and there are concerns as to whether the new system’s exceptions will be adequately calibrated and sensitive to this,” she added.
Hayes also warned that SMEs will struggle to get access to the list, as the onus will be on them to prove they are committed to recruit domestically to get access to the list.
“For large, well-resourced construction companies with substantial human resources departments, that’s going to be easier, but for mid-size and smaller construction companies, I think that’s going to be difficult to establish,” he said.
The MAC will also carry out a “thorough review” of the salary threshold to ensure “international recruitment is never a cheap alternative to fair pay and to ensure they reflect the new changes to our immigration system”.
Firms employing skilled workers via schemes like the skilled worker visa will also need to pay more to access the visa, with the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) set to increase by 32 per cent.
The Home Office said it would use the money gathered via the ISC to support skills funding for some sectors to upskill the workforce and reduce their reliance on migration.
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Joshua Stein