May told restrictions are wrong way around
The Home Secretary’s advisers have recommended an overhaul of the visa system for entrepreneurs.
Martha Baroness Lane-Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com, is one of a group of tech entrepreneurs asking the government to ease restrictions on skilled overseas workers
The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has “found substantial evidence of low-quality businesses” established by entrants under the UK’s Tier 1 (entrepreneur) visa programme. They say industry experts rather than civil servants should help select the entrepreneurs admitted to Britain, adding that Mrs May should also consider a specific visa for those wanting to establish a start-up.
There is already a 20,700-a-year limit on Tier 2 skilled workers from outside Europe. The government is keen to further restrict the number of Tier 2 visas issued and is focussed on using the Tier 1 system to make sure that Britain is a country where entrepreneurs and investors are able to establish and fund new businesses.
Sir David Metcalf, MAC chairman, said this month that the dedicated Tier 1 route for investors who bought at least £2m of British assets was “absolutely not fit for purpose”, and now he has turned his fire on the entry route for entrepreneurs.
Tech leaders, however, say they are “very concerned” at plans to both restrict the Tier 2 system of skilled work visas and to reform the entrepreneur visa.
Five different means have been explored by the MAC to achieve these ends, which reflect their remit from the Prime Minister to advise on “significantly reducing the level” of skilled migration to the UK.
One way could be to make the Tier 2 visa less accessible by raising the minimum salary threshold; another could be to restrict the visa to ‘genuine skills shortages.’
But the government’s proposals are the wrong way around, imply a group of more than 230 IT entrepreneurs, who have founded companies including Lastminute.com, Shazam, Adzuna, Unruly and TechHub.
In a letter to David Cameron, the entrepreneurs call on the PM to rethink proposals being analysed by the Migration Advisory Committee to place new curbs on skilled migration. They believe that tightening restrictions will make it increasingly difficult to attract and recruit the talent needed by growing companies to remain competitive in the global marketplace.
“The UK is home to the largest and fastest growing digital economy in the G20, worth 10 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product),” reads a section of the letter, which adds: “Future changes to the immigration system [should] make it easier, not harder, for qualified digital entrepreneurs to come to the UK.
“Further restrictions on skilled migration could restrict the growth of our businesses and hurt the UK’s digital economy.”
