London-only work visa plan laid out for Brexit Britain

Business leaders have outlined their vision of a London-only visa that would allow them to maintain access to foreign labour.

Under the proposals from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, businesses in the UK capital would be able to sponsor skilled workers with a job offer for a visa.

Although the idea faces practical and political hurdles, the LCCI hopes that the UK’s reliance on London’s economic success, which is heavily dependent on immigrant labour, will persuade the government to consider it.

“Our city would collapse without migrants. We need an immigration policy that is slightly different for London,” said Sean McKee, policy director. “The biggest issue by far [for businesses] is skills and staff. It is vital to London’s future that a degree of flexibility is applied if the government amends the UK immigration system.”

Recipients would have London-specific national insurance numbers that would prevent them from working elsewhere. If they left or lost their job, they would have 60 days to find another one before being deported. Businesses would have to prove they could not recruit locally unless the post was on a London-specific list of skills shortages.

This year the City of London Corporation released proposals ;for a scheme modelled on regional visa policies in Australia and Canada, which have a strategy for bringing migrants to areas where low population growth and skills gaps are restricting local industry.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has said he will consider the proposals before deciding how to proceed. A spokesman said he “has been pressing the government to develop a solution to the current failings in the visa system which create too many barriers to London’s businesses. This report is a welcome contribution to that ongoing discussion and the mayor will consider its recommendations.”

This summer Mr Khan said: “When you say ‘London visa’, you think, ‘well, there’s no chance of that happening’ because it assumes independence or it assumes borders.

“But if you think about it in a different way . . . for example, ensuring that London businesses have the ability to recruit talent, that’s a different argument and a different discussion. So I think nothing should be off the table.”

On Wednesday night a government spokesperson said that “while we will address the specific interests of our regions, nations and cities, we will leave the EU as one United Kingdom”.

“The British people have sent a clear message that it must be a priority in our negotiations to gain more control of the numbers of people who come here from Europe, and we will implement a system for the whole UK that delivers this,” the spokesperson said.

Once the process of Brexit has been completed, which is projected for 2019, the government plans to end the automatic right of EU workers to come to the UK. The push for regionalised immigration policies is informed by the feeling that some parts of the UK are more receptive to immigration to others: as well as London, Scottish politicians are seeking the devolution of immigration powers.

The UK capital is home to 3m people who were born abroad, while the LCCI has estimated that one in four workers in the capital is foreign-born. In the EU referendum, seven of the 10 areas with the highest share of the Remain vote were in London.

But the visa scheme, which would be overseen by business groups and the Greater London Authority, faces obstacles. Jo Hennessy, an immigration lawyer at Pinsent Masons, said many companies had offices in more than one location and so policing the movement of workers within an organisation could be “tricky”. She also noted there could be “pushback from other parts of the UK that have their own immigration needs”.

Previous proposals ;for a London-only visa involved the GLA or business groups sponsoring visas themselves, a task neither is willing or able to take on. Thursday’s proposal involves employers sponsoring applicants, with the mayor and business groups acting as a “broker”.