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New immigration rules are a “disaster” for London’s ability to attract big events and deliver vital housing and infrastructure, business leaders warned today.
Sporting events, music festivals and business conferences will have to pare back top-notch hospitality like silver service, putting the city at a disadvantage to competitors, UKHospitality warned.
A shortage of low-skilled construction workers could also delay “key projects” including new homes, HS2 rail and the Thames Tideway “super sewer”, said construction chiefs who warned they already had unfilled vacancies.
The backlash came as Home Secretary Priti Patel published details of the Government’s points-based system that will favour high-skilled English speakers whose visa applications are backed by waiting employers.
Businesses will have just 10 months to prepare before the rules are enforced.
Home Secretary Priti Patel (PA)
She said the reforms would “end our reliance on low-skilled workers who often are also low-paid”. Overseas labourers would be welcome if they had “the right kind of skills”, she pledged.
But Ms Patel admitted on LBC radio that her parents might not have been admitted to the UK under her rules.
Asked if she would not be in the UK, she replied: “We are not changing our approach to refugees and asylum seekers, which is very different to a points-based system for employment.”
Ms Patel’s parents came to the UK from Uganda in the Sixties, years before dictator Idi Amin expelled Asian people in 1972, and set up a newsagents chain.
But ex-Conservative health secretary Stephen Dorrell, who chairs the European Movement, branded the curbs “the worst kind of dog-whistle politics”.
Stephen Dorrell, Chairman of European Movement (Getty Images)
UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls told the Standard the impact of the changes could be “disastrous” for hotels, bars and even regeneration schemes which feature bars.
“London is a world-beating hospitality market and we need to stay competitive internationally,” she said. “Award shows and business conferences all rely on hospitality workers of all skill levels and all salary levels.
“You won’t see table service at some events if these skills are not available. Silver service tables could disappear. It is a delicate ecosytstem and if one bit is damaged, the rest will suffer.”
Carluccio’s chief Mark Jones said: “The majority of current roles would not pass new laws and… job offers to migrants will be restricted. Costs will go up and no doubt restaurants will close.”
Brian Berry, the head of the Federation of Master Builders, said London also risked falling behind on big projects like HS2.
“If we are to build a million new homes over the next five years, we need to have an immigration system that allows for key construction workers of all skill levels to come to the UK.
“Today’s announcement that there will no longer be a route for ‘low-skill’ workers will hamper the construction industry’s capacity to deliver on key projects.”
He added: “We will need general labourers as much as architects or surveyors. They are a core part of the construction industry and it’s unrealistic to assume the domestic workforce will fill this gap in nine months.”
Richard Burge, of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed a cut in the minimum salary threshold from £30,000 to £25,600 and praised the Government for “beginning a programme of engagement” with firms.
The care sector said it was already seeing homes close due to staffing problems, causing patients to be kept in expensive hospital beds when they should be in residential care.
The UK Homecare Association said it was “dismayed” by the Government’s decision, adding: “Cutting off the supply of prospective careworkers will pave the way for more people going without care. Telling employers to adjust, in a grossly underfunded care system, is simply irresponsible.”
