Sunak to announce major package of measures to cut immigration later today
Rishi Sunak will today announce its intention to reduce immigration, it is reported.
The sun says he will announce the salary threshold for people seeking a work visa to come to the UK will amount to £38,000. The Daily Telegraph reports something similar, quoting a Whitehall source as saying: “People will be surprised how strong a package it is. » This is from the Telegraph Ben Riley Smith.
🚨EXCLUSIVE
Major package of policies to reduce net migration unveiled *today*
– Sharp increase in minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas
– Reduction of health+social visas
– Revision of the list of shortage professions
With @charleshymas https://t.co/fJogFgKWZO
– Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) December 4, 2023
It was confirmed to the Guardian that the announcement would come later today.
Key events
Hunt rejects the think tank’s claim the UK economy is suffering from a “broken leg”, saying it is more likely a sprained ankle.
During his Q&A at the Resolution Foundation conference, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was asked about the think tank’s claim that the economy was suffering the equivalent of a “broken leg”. He said he did not accept that description. It was more of a sprained ankle, he said:
Sometimes we forget that other countries also have things to improve.
I think we shouldn’t lose confidence that we are doing some absolutely incredible things. I know it’s controversial in other ways, but when Elon Musk was here three weeks ago he said there are only two centers in the world for AI, San Francisco and London .
We have a lot to do, so if we want to deal with the sprain rather than the broken leg, let’s do it from a positive perspective.
Robert Booth
MPs have launched an inquiry into the state of children’s social care in England, amid growing warnings children are suffering from a lack of foster carers and private companies are taking advantage of taxpayers by charging up to 63,000 £ per week for a single social care placement.
The House of Commons Education Select Committee launched the inquiry with figures showing that the number of children in social care care has increased by 30% since 2010 and that the number of people at the end of support faced with homelessness is increasing.
Committee chair MP Robin Walker said MPs would ask “whether the government needs to go further and faster” in reforms to how the country’s most vulnerable children are cared for.
Last week the Guardian reported a warning from councils that they were being “held hostage” by private care providers, as it emerged the taxpayer was paying up to £3.3million a year for the placement of single children in social services. The Department for Education has identified “market failure for looked after children” as a major risk.
And today, child welfare experts called for an urgent nationwide search for thousands of new foster families, a net loss of 1,000 families over the past year and a record number of children placed far from home.
The investigation will begin in earnest in 2024 and evidence can be submitted until January 15.
It’s what Jack Elsom And Ryan Sabey say in their Sun story about the announcement that will be made this afternoon on measures to reduce immigration.
The Prime Minister is expected to significantly increase the salary requirement for foreign workers to £38,000, while further limiting whether they can bring in their families.
He came under enormous pressure to get tough after figures showed 745,000 people came to Britain last year…
The current minimum wage for foreign workers is just over £26,000.
And what is it Charles Hyman And Ben Riley Smith report in their Telegraph story.
It is understood that the number of dependents that social workers are allowed to bring into Britain will also be reduced.
Home Office figures showed that visas granted to foreign health and social service workers more than doubled to 143,990 in the year to September. These migrants brought a total of 173,896 dependents.
The overall number of NHS and social care visas could also be limited, as Mr Jenrick proposes as part of a five-point plan to reduce net migration.
The fifth proposal is expected to increase the minimum income by £18,600 required for a UK citizen to bring their spouse or dependent to the UK on a family visa.
There will also be a review of the shortage occupations list, under which companies can pay foreign workers in shortage areas 20 percent less than the going rate.
Sources said it would be “largely cleared” with a high bar for any exceptions. There were concerns that ending the exemption for care workers would worsen serious shortages in the care sector.
These proposals are largely in line with measures proposed by Robert Jenrick, the Immigration Minister. would have pushed number 10 to adopt. But Jenrick was said to be in favor of raising the minimum salary threshold for a work visa to £35,000. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, and Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, both pushed for the minimum wage to be £40,000.
Sunak to announce major package of measures to cut immigration later today
Rishi Sunak will today announce its intention to reduce immigration, it is reported.
The sun says he will announce the salary threshold for people seeking a work visa to come to the UK will amount to £38,000. The Daily Telegraph reports something similar, quoting a Whitehall source as saying: “People will be surprised how strong a package it is. » This is from the Telegraph Ben Riley Smith.
🚨EXCLUSIVE
Major package of policies to reduce net migration unveiled *today*
– Sharp increase in minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas
– Reduction of health+social visas
– Revision of the list of shortage professions
With @charleshymas https://t.co/fJogFgKWZO
– Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) December 4, 2023
It was confirmed to the Guardian that the announcement would come later today.
Q: Why do you think the UK still has a productivity problem even though it is good at innovation?
Hunting argues that productivity is determined by a combination of human capital, business investment, regional factors, and “total factor productivity,” which includes the ability to innovate.
The UK has been good at the latter, he says. He has been less good at investing. And when it comes to human capital, it’s been good for college-level skills, but not as good for job skills, he says.
Q: What will you do to support people in debt?
Hunting said he promoted the mortgage charter to help people who are having difficulty paying their mortgage.
Minton Beds now answers questions from people in the audience.
Q: Are you worried about the impact of spending cuts on the creative industries?
Hunting says he sees the creative industries as an area of national benefit.
He says there has been an increase in filmmaking in the UK. The film industry is an offshoot of the technology industry, because special effects are very important.
And he says public service broadcasting is at the heart of what makes the UK attractive.
Q: How can you claim to be the party of planning reform when your MPs continue to block planning reform measures?
Hunting says that all parties must manage their MPs.
But he says that, for the last year for which full figures are available, the number of housebuildings was higher than under Labor.
Hunt says UK has potential to become ‘most successful economy of the 21st century’ thanks to its track record on innovation
Jeremy Hunt said the UK could be the “most successful” economy this century because of its “untapped potential”.
Speaking at the Resolution Foundation conference, he said the fastest growing industry sectors were those “where we are doing very well”. He said:
If I had to choose one country in the world that has the most untapped potential to become the most successful economy of the 21st century, it would be Britain.
He said the UK had a technology sector “twice the size of Germany, three times the size of France”. Acknowledging that improving productivity was a major challenge, he said:
If you’re wondering why we’ve grown faster than Germany since 2010, despite higher productivity, it’s because we’re actually stronger at innovation. If we could solve the productivity problem, there would be no stopping us.
Q: Ministers change positions very often. Do you accept that volatility is a problem?
Hunting says volatility is not a good thing, but he says it is a consequence of Brexit and the parliamentary problems that followed.
He says he wants to see more stability in the future.
Q: What about institutional reform? The Economist recently published an article saying it was too short-term.
Hunting says he normally agrees with The Economist, but suggests he disagrees with this article. He says the argument might be historically correct. But he says that since working at the Treasury, he has found this sector very favorable for growth.
