The UK government is “temporarily easing visa restrictions” for a string of construction roles by adding them to the shortage occupation list.
Tradespeople including, carpenters, bricklayers and roofers are among the workers who will be allowed to apply for work visas and receive a discount on fees in a bid to remedy UK job shortages.
Under new plans, foreign workers trained in certain professions can qualify for a work visa and will be allowed to pay a reduced application fee.
The government hopes the move will help boost the economy, “stimulate development” and “attract new talent”.
The announcement comes following calls from some Tory MPs who urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to cut back immigration and temporary visa schemes.
Downing Street defended the decision and said it did not contradict Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s well-publicised ambition to reduce overall immigration figures and end the reliance on overseas workers.
Bricklayers, masons, roofers, roof tilers, slaters, carpenters, joiners, plasterers and other “construction and building trades not elsewhere classified” have all been added.
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Those working in a shortage occupation can be paid 80 per cent of the job’s usual going rate.
Applicants still need a sponsored job offer from an employer and have to meet English-language requirements under the government’s points-based immigration system.
The roles on the shortage occupation list remain under review, the Home Office added.
It comes after the Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government on immigration, recommended the plan.
Previously the independent body warned replacing freedom of movement with a points-based immigration system after Brexit could cut economic growth and may have “zero effect” on providing more jobs for British workers.
At the time, industry leaders warned builders could be one of the industries hit the hardest by the changes to the UK’s immigration rules, with visas not routinely offered to migrant workers in jobs that were considered by ministers and officials to be low skilled.
“I think we’ve always acknowledged that in the short term we will need to flex and use our Brexit freedoms to enable us to fill short-term occupation numbers,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
“Obviously, the shortage occupation list is counted differently to the overall net migration figures.
“Long-term it’s right, as the Home Secretary said. We do want to ensure we have a specially trained domestic workforce.”
He added that the Department for Work and Pensions was “doing a lot of work to that end to ensure that those who are inactive or off on long-term sick are being helped back into the workforce to fill some of these gaps”.
