So, is an open labour market a good thing or not? There is little point in looking to the government for guidance on this. A few weeks ago, ministers were praising themselves for having reduced migration – legal migration, that is, not the illegal kind, which continues to grow.
The government – or rather Rishi Sunak’s government, which introduced the rules now taking effect – has achieved this partly by making it difficult and expensive for employers to offer jobs to foreign workers. Salary thresholds have been increased. Costs and bureaucracy have been loaded onto the process. It can cost thousands of pounds to obtain a work visa. In April, a Skilled Worker Visa was increased in price by £75 to £1,235; a Global Business Mobility visa has been put up £114 to £1,865.
But now Rachel Reeves seems to have had a change of heart. She wants to reimburse employers for the costs of obtaining visas for skilled workers – to the tune of £5,000 per worker, up to a maximum of £25,000 per employer over a 12 month period. However, the concession will only apply to a limited number of ‘high-growth’ businesses – or rather, businesses which the government has decided have excellent prospects. Anyone else will have to continue to stump up as before.
