The number of people applying to work in the UK from abroad has dropped to the lowest number in years following stricter Government visa rules.
In November, the Home Office received 4,100 skilled visa applications from foreign workers, the lowest number since January 2022 – and 2,000 fewer than the same month last year
Requests from foreign doctors, nurses and health and adult social care professionals to come to Britain reached an all time high in August last year when there were 18,300 applicants in the month.
It comes as a minister admitted that the country will be “reliant” on foreign builders to help solve the housing crisis.
But Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook insisted that the Government would not be easing visa restrictions to bring in more foreign labour to meet its 1.5million new homes target.
“We’ve got to do more to train and skill up our own people to work in this [building] industry.
“We recently announced a significant sum of money – £140million – for a series of training hubs across the country to get more apprenticeships moving through the system.
“There’s other action we’re taking across government to address this issue.
“If we don’t take steps to deal with the fact that we’ve got an aging construction workforce and not particularly diverse construction workforce, and to draw on modern methods of construction as well, we won’t be able to achieve that 1.5 million new homes targets.”
Source: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/visas-health-skilled-foreign-workers-uk-builders-b1199629.html
