According to the head of British Chambers of Commerce.
Shortages remain in some industries despite a record level of net migration of more than half a million people in the year to June 2021 and the government’s relaxation of its ‘shortage occupations list’ earlier this year to ease access for construction workers in the UK, said BCC chief executive Shevaun Haviland.
“We have a list of shortage occupations, these are the mechanisms of this current government,” she said. “It’s not about unbridled immigration. It’s about using these structures to turn on the taps in specific locations to help relieve pressure on businesses.
Other industries affected by labor shortages include social care and fruit picking. Some hotels couldn’t operate at full capacity because they didn’t have enough staff, Haviland said.
Representatives of the food and agricultural sector have also called on the government to relax immigration rules. Industry gathered in Downing Street on Tuesday for a food safety summit, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to boost the UK’s self-sufficiency.
At the summit, Sunak confirmed that in addition to the 45,000 visas the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will provide to horticultural workers next year, there would be capacity for another 10,000.
Ahead of the meeting, the National Farmers Union demanded a rolling seasonal worker scheme of at least five years to ease severe labor shortages on farms. The trade body estimated last year that up to £60m of produce was wasted due to a lack of fruit and vegetable pickers.
Meat processors, meanwhile, are finding it difficult to recruit butchers with the level of English skills required under the current immigration rules. Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said the industry had become dependent on butchers from the Philippines and it cost around £12,000 to bring them to the UK.
“When Brexit happened we were 70% non-British in our meat factories. We have a huge challenge to replace that with British workers,” he said.
Haviland cited the example of a boat building business in Poole, Dorset, where the owner said he could not fill his £700m order book due to a lack of fiberglass laminators, who previously came from Eastern Europe. The necessary replacement workers will take two years to train locally.
She said ministers last summer had been receptive to an expansion of the list of shortage professions, but less so in recent weeks.
Haviland, who took up his post in business lobby groups two years ago, will address members on Wednesday at the BCC’s annual conference – attended by top business leaders and politicians – where it will offer an optimistic view of Britain as a “great place to start a business”.
But she said businesses faced a difficult backdrop, having been destabilized by a year of political chaos, soaring energy bills caused by the Russian crisis invasion of ukrainelabor shortages and wage inflation.
However, British companies were not guilty of “greed” or profiteering from the price hike, Haviland said.
Companies were absorbing huge cost increases and trying not to pass them on to customers, she said. “I think we’ve probably estimated that there’s about 20% input inflation and 10% output inflation,” she said.
Some central banks have warned that “greed” could add to price pressures, with US corporate profit margins hitting their highest level in 70 years in 2022, according to research from the University of Massachusetts.
Eurozone companies have also increased their profitability sharply over the past two years, according to research by French bank Natixis, but current and former Bank of England officials have suggested that UK companies are do not enjoy.
Haviland’s intervention comes as Labor MPs called in the House of Commons on Tuesday for a temporary, economy-wide ‘excess profit tax’ similar to the windfall tax imposed on the oil and gas sector. gas.
Cases have been rocked recently by allegations of rape, sexual harassment and bullying at another employers’ lobby group, the CBIprompting more than 50 leading members to cut or suspend ties.
Haviland said that following the allegations, BCC management checked that its own processes were up to standard. When asked if the organization had found any evidence of harassment or similar allegations, she replied: “No, not to my knowledge.”
Haviland expressed sympathy for the victims of the alleged crimes and for some of the 250 CBI employees whose jobs were now at risk, but said the BCC was “having conversations” with some anonymous former CBI members about membership. to his organization.
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