Less than a third of UK visas issued have been given to the highly-skilled foreign workers needed to boost Britain’s economy it has been revealed, as Downing Street defended the delay to the Government’s new immigration blueprint.
Home Office data shows that fewer than 181,000 visas out of a total of about 560,000 were allocated to workers in key fields in the four years to the end of 2024.
This means just 32% were handed out to professionals in the eight sectors identified by the Government as the answer to boosting economic growth, business consultancy specialist Centuro Global said.
Its analysis, released on Monday, found that although 133,000 more employees are needed in UK life sciences jobs by 2030, just 16,000 visas were issued to people with those skills over the four year period.
Financial services, defence, advanced manufacturing, creative industries, digital and technology sectors and clean energy industries were also short of workers need to fill jobs, the data suggests.
It has sparked accusations that Britain’s visa system is “unfit for purpose” and should be reformed to allow more highly-skilled people to come into the country.
It comes as it was revealed Sir Keir Starmer’s blueprint to reduce net migration has been pushed back until after Easter, reportedly due to minister disagreements over how to appease businesses likely to struggle from the impact of new US tariffs.
The Prime Minister in November pledged to tighten immigration rules as number were at a record high. Net migration fell to 728,000 in the year to June 2024, but Sir Keir has pledged to reduce it significantly before the next election.
The Government plans to publish a White Paper, which it says will lay out plans “to restore” the UK’s “broken immigration system”.
It had been due early this year, but is now not expected until after the local elections in May.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said on Monday: “That work is obviously of critical importance.
“We've been very clear that we will take a bold approach to reduce the sky high levels of migration, which quadrupled under the last government.
“So we're working on a plan that restores order to our immigration system.”
Asked why it had been delayed, he added: “It’s an ambitious piece of work to reduce sky high levels of migration.”
Last spring, the previous Conservative Government significantly hiked the minimum salary threshold for the Skilled Worker visa and imposed much stricter restrictions on employees bringing dependents into the country with them.
These changes, aimed to reduce net migration, have inadvertently hurt industries that rely on highly skilled foreign workers, it was argued.
Zain Ali, CEO and co-founder of Centuro Global, said: “The UK’s visa system is unfit for purpose and fails to differentiate between roles critical to our economy and those that could be filled domestically.
"The recent report by the National Audit Office confirmed what businesses have been telling us for months: frequent and unpredictable changes to visa rules make workforce planning almost impossible.
“Immigration policies should be shaped by labour market realities, not short-term political pressures."
He added: “A smarter, growth-focused visa system is needed to ensure businesses can access top global talent while maintaining control over immigration.”
It comes after it was revealed that the changes to the UK’s Skilled Worker visa route for foreign workers were made without understanding the impact it would have and resulted in thousands more migrants claiming asylum in the country.
There had been a significant increase in the number of people holding a Skilled Worker visa claiming asylum - up from just 53 claims in 2022 to 5,300 in the first 10 months of 2024, the National Audit Office (NAO) found.
Far more foreign workers are also using the route to come to the UK than the Government initially anticipated, the spending watchdog said in its report.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Under the last government there were a large volume of visas were granted seeing net migration in the millions.
“This government is getting a grip of this problem.
“Under our Plan for Change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system, linking immigration, skills and visa systems to grow our domestic workforce, end reliance on overseas labour and boost economic growth.”
