The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has warned that the Government's plans to raise charges on work and visit visas will increase costs for meat industry employers.
In an address to Parliament, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen announced the following, which is intended to raise revenue to pay for public sector pay increases:
- Immigration Health Surcharge - up over 65% from £624 to £1035
- Work and visit visas - up 15%
- Certificates of sponsorship, settlement, citizenship - up 'at least 20%'.
It’s the Government’s contention that this will not be inflationary, but as Nick Allen, CEO of the BMPA explained: “We know that many private employers are having to foot the bill for these charges to incentivise workers to come to the UK. These extra costs get passed on down the supply chain and end up increasing the cost of the goods and services that overseas workers produce.”
Even if the extra charges are to be borne by the workers themselves and not covered by their employer, BMPA said that the UK will become much less attractive as a destination for overseas talent, and the UK labour market will become even shorter of the skills and workers needed to grow the economy.
A time frame for introducing these price increases has not been announced.
This news comes as the BMPA recently stated that one-off costs of up to £15,000 to bring in staff were leaving the trade body questioning policy makers. It warned that the cost of recruiting "badly needed" overseas workers is stoking food price inflation.
BMPA said that the latest announcement by the UK Government had made matters worse.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
