The Home Office has published the future skills-based immigration system white paper which sets out the Government’s plans to introduce a new single immigration system, ending free movement.

Through Build UK, FIS has supported this important piece of work and we would like to thank all of our members who took the time to respond to the questionnaire. The report identifies occupations that are experiencing, or may experience shortages, of available staff in the UK construction sector.

Helen Yeulet, FIS skills delivery director said: ‘It is concerning, but not surprising to see a number of our interiors trades, pulled out in the list of “severe difficulties now” against the back drop of Brexit looming, with Drylining an obvious highlight,. We will be working with Build UK and other trade bodies to inform MPs and the relevant Ministers to ensure that the implications are understood.

Our views on the recommendations from the Migration Advisory Committee are clear, they simply don’t address the very real problem we face in terms of delivering the skills we need in the numbers we need in a realistic timeframe. The supply chain absolutely understand the need to invest and develop our workforce and we have a very busy programme doing this, but setting arbitrary triggers around qualifications and salaries around need and demand makes no sense at all, creating a real risk to the construction sector.’