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Why hospitality is facing a labour, not skills, shortage

Operators
Steven Freudmann
22 July 2019

Steven Freudmann, chair of the Institute of Travel & Tourism, assesses the impact a potential post-Brexit salary threshold for international workers would have on the sector.

Steven Freudmann Opinion

In 2011, in response to the challenge from Ukip, David Cameron’s government pledged to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 UK arrivals a year.

Today, net migration is running at more than 250,000.

The government has since published its white paper on post-Brexit immigration, removing the numerical target for net immigration and instead proposing all workers (including those from the EU) should have to earn a minimum salary of £30,000 to be sponsored for a UK work visa.

Low-skilled workers would be restricted to short-term visas.

Business and education bodies last week called on the next prime minister to lower the salary threshold to £20,000.