The Grocer quotes Kelvin Tanner on the impact of upcoming visa changes on the hospitality industry
The government announced in December changes to immigration law that will see the minimum salary required for a skilled overseas worker visa increase from £26,200 to £38,700.
Several food businesses and trade associations have warned the move will cut out a lifeline of vital staff currently filling hard-to-hire roles such as chefs, butchers, poultry and fish processors, and farmers.
Our immigration team represent clients across hospitality, retail and manufacturing and have observed a “clear increase in the number of skilled worker applications submitted over the past few months and a particular rush since the beginning of 2024."
Kelvin Tanner, Partner in our immigration team, provides comment for The Grocer:
“Amongst our clients, we have seen the biggest rush to file applications within the hospitality, retail and manufacturing sectors and for regional roles that would be unable to meet the higher minimum salary thresholds when they are introduced."
Kelvin adds that clients in the hospitality sector in London were “already finding it very difficult to fill vacancies for specialist chefs from within the UK following the end of the EU free movement”.
“In addition to training people locally, they were forced to develop overseas recruitment pipelines that will become unviable based on the new Skilled Worker salary levels.”
Read the full piece in The Grocer here.
