LONDON – Authorities in the United Kingdom are easing visa rules for foreign construction workers owing to the paucity of these professionals.
The relaxation would help foreign bricklayers, roofers, carpenters, and plasterers and the Home Office will temporarily relax restrictions to allow more overseas builders to come to Britain to work.
The development comes after a number of construction roles were added to the ‘shortage occupation list’, following a recommendation by a body that advises ministers on migration issues and how to tackle any crisis.
The Home Office has announced that bricklayers, masons, roofers, roof tilers, slaters, carpenters, joiners and plasterers were among the roles being added to the shortage occupation list ‘to stimulate development, attract new talent and grow the economy’.
The Migration Advisory Committee had reported earlier this year that vacancies in the construction sector had ‘risen substantially’ relative to pre-Covid levels.
As far as the relaxation is concerned, for those roles for which there is deemed to be a shortage of workers, new recruits can be paid 80 per cent of the job’s usual ‘going rate’ and still qualify for a visa besides benefiting from a lower visa application fee.
It bears mentioning that construction workers will still need a sponsored job offer from an employer and to meet English language requirements under the Government’s post-Brexit immigration system.
The visa relaxation might annoy Tory MPs as it comes weeks after it was revealed that net migration to Britain has reached record levels.
The Office for National Statistics reported that net migration which is the number of arrivals to the UK minus the number of departures increased to 606,000 in the year to December 2022, despite growing calls that immigration should stop.
But, the same body also reported in 2021 that the construction industry had lost more than a third of its EU-born workforce since 2017.
The relaxation of visa rules has relieved the aspiring construction workers on one hand but on the other hand has also sent a positive signal to the housebuilders who had been calling on the government to introduce such legislation as the financial crisis had prompted construction workers to move out of the country, leaving housebuilders high and dry.
