CBI urges Cameron to lift skilled migrant limit

David Cameron is risking the economic recovery by refusing to lift the cap on skilled foreign workers coming to the UK, the CBI has said.

The monthly limit on visas was hit for the first time since it was introduced, in June and already again this month. Up to 20 firms have complained that they are unable to get the staff they need into the country. CBI director general John Cridland urged the prime minister to "push it up and give a bit of headroom".

He said the 20,700 annual limit on Tier 2 business visas, introduced in 2011, was fine for when the country was in recession but was too tight for a growing economy.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said in June there were "no plans to change the limit" and that the government had asked the Migration Advisory Committee to find ways to "significantly reduce economic migration from outside the EU".

'Productivity challenge'

Mr Cridland is concerned that could mean a further tightening of the limit despite skills shortages in sectors such as professional services, IT, science and engineering. He declined to suggest how high the cap should go, saying that was for the Migration Advisory Committee to decide.

But he attacked the government's policy of targeting net migration and said they should be focusing on gross migration, numbers coming into the country, instead.

He said the government should focus its immigration efforts on tackling bogus asylum-seekers, over-stayers, criminals, welfare-seekers and some unskilled workers. Instead, skilled migrants seemed to have become "the first port of call" because they were easier to target, he suggested.

The CBI chief told journalists: "Let's tackle the bits of immigration the public is concerned about but while we have challenges to productivity and education and skills, let's not let migration controls inhibit economic growth because that isn't necessary."

 'Hard-working students'

He also criticised Home Office moves to end the right for non-EU students to work for up to 10 hours a week while they study in the UK and to force them to leave the country after they graduate and re-apply to work here rather than being allowed to stay for up to two years.

Mr Cridland said: "I understand the need of government to tackle public concerns about migration.

"But I don't think the public is concerned about skilled workers that help business be more successful or about hard-working students who are adding value to the economy, whether as a skilled engineer two years after they got their degree or as a waiter in a barista bar if you want a cup of coffee at a rail station in the morning.

 "The government need to back out of the cul-de-sac they are in on the overall net migration target."

 The CBI chief said there had also been "some noise" from the government that they could include intra-company transfers - where existing employees of a firm were moved to the UK to work on specific time-limited projects - in the cap.

But these were "highly-skilled individuals" who "keep the UK at the cutting edge of high-value innovation", he said.

Mr Cridland made his comments as part of the CBI's "end of Parliamentary term" report on the new government, which was "broadly positive", although he remains concerned about the impact of the higher minimum wage announced in the Budget on small businesses.

bbc.com