The Construction Leadership Council has this month called for immigration restrictions to be eased to facilitate the recruitment of skilled workers into an industry challenged by severe manpower shortages.
Across the UK economy other sectors, including health & social care, hospitality, and engineering, are also experiencing similar recruitment challenges following Brexit, the pandemic and spiralling inflation. The long-term effects of this situation on the UK economy could be catastrophic as businesses struggle to maintain productivity.
Commenting on the Government’s failure to add additional roles to its shortage occupation list to support the challenged Construction sector, Mandie Sewa, Head of Immigration at Brevis Law said: “The UK needs more than 20 thousand additional workers a year to meet construction demand, and building firms have long had to look overseas to recruit the tradespeople they need.
“But, following Brexit, this has become significantly more difficult. And since many construction workers are self-employed, they won’t be eligible for the Skilled Worker route when they make their visa applications. This means employers will be forced to go through the complex, and expensive, application process to gain a Sponsor Licence before they can even start to recruit. And they’ll face additional visa costs for each sponsored worker they take on board.
“So until the Government ease restrictions on immigration for skilled workers, recruitment from overseas will likely remain an unattractive prospect both for the employers and – probably – the skilled tradespeople themselves. Which is far from ideal if we’re hoping to build a flourishing construction industry and economy in the UK”.
If you have any questions about recruiting overseas workers in the construction industry please contact Brevis Law.
Author:
Mandie Sewa / Head of Immigration / Brevis Law
Further reading:
‘CLC pushes for more trades to be added to shortage list’, The Construction Index
