Liz Truss is expected to relax immigration rules to boost economic growth amid warnings of a recession.
The prime minister will expand the government’s shortage occupation list to help companies fill vacancies by recruiting foreign workers with less red tape.
Truss has faced industry calls for more migrant workers to be granted visas to enter the UK, with labor shortages being a key concern for employers in a number of sectors.
Businesses, particularly in the hospitality sector, have been frustrated that the skilled work visa system has not responded sufficiently to alleviate the bottlenecks they are experiencing.
Downing Street did not deny that the Prime Minister plans to liberalize routes to allow foreign workers to move to the UK, the PA news agency reported.
According to the Sun, the upper limit is to be lifted and the six-month period extended.
A No 10 source told the newspaper: “We need to take action so that we have the right skills that the economy, including the rural economy, needs to spur growth.
“That will mean that the number will increase in some areas and decrease in others. As the Prime Minister has made clear, we also want to get people who are economically inactive back into work.”
During her campaign for the Conservative leadership, Truss pledged to address farm labor shortages, caused in part by post-Brexit restrictions on movement and exacerbated by the pandemic, with a short-term expansion of the seasonal workers scheme.
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A recent government report warned that such shortages are severely affecting the food and farming sectors, often forcing farmers to cull healthy pigs and leave fruit to rot in the fields.
The government is expected to present its migration reform plan later this year.
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