UK’s Sunak Looks to More Foreign Workers to Plug Shortages

  • Government drawing up plans to loosen rules on construction
  • Ministers want to tackle chronic shortages in labor market
Construction workers on a site in the City of London, UK, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. UK wages rose quicker than expected at the end of 2022, heaping pressure on the Bank of England to deliver another interest-rate increase next month.Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
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The UK government is drawing up plans to loosen immigration rules to tackle chronic shortages in the construction industry, amid concerns that encouraging Britons to go back to work won’t be enough to plug the gaps.

The Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the government on immigration, has recommended that tradespeople including carpenters, bricklayers and roofers should be added to the “shortage occupation list,” according to a person familiar with the matter.