Latest news with #HomeAffairsCommittee
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
UK Jobs: Construction industry in UK is still able to hire foreign workers under visa clampdown, ETHRWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Download ETHRWorld App Get Realtime updates Save your favourite articles Scan to download App Construction workers from abroad will still be able to migrate to the UK despite tighter visa restrictions announced by the government, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, as Labour attempts to slash migration without damaging critical sectors of the to Parliament's Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Cooper said officials had already identified a series of occupations that would not appear on the new Temporary Shortage List . That list will allow employers to bring workers into the country who would not otherwise be eligible, because the job is classed as below degree the construction industry, and other sectors needed by the government to support its economic growth ambitions, will still appear on the list. That will come as a relief to firms in the UK who worried that restricting the migrant workforce would hamper their business.'Construction will continue to be on the Temporary Shortage List,' Cooper told lawmakers, adding that the industry would also have to develop a workforce strategy showing how it would train and recruit more British workers over time. Roles 'will only be able to go on the Temporary Shortage List if they are effectively in critical areas, for example those that are critical to the industrial strategy or something like construction.'Cooper's reassurance to the construction industry comes just weeks after the government unveiled its immigration white paper, which set out a series of changes to the UK's immigration system. Most employers will now only be able to recruit from abroad for roles which are degree level or above, and workers will have to stay in the country for 10 years, rather than five, before they can apply for settled restrictions were an attempt by Labour to stave off the anti-migrant Reform UK party, which has soared in popularity over the last year and won a slew of council seats in local elections last the UK has an Immigration Salary List which allows employers to recruit from abroad for over 1,300 roles where there is currently deemed to be a shortage. Being on that list means employers can recruit overseas nationals into those roles on a salary up to 20% below the general said that system was too lax, and had contributed to the unprecedented number of migrants coming to the UK while providing no incentive for businesses to hire or train out-of-work white paper abolishes the current system to replace it with the Temporary Shortage List. Cooper said the government will cut up to 180 occupations from the current Immigration Salary List — but that would still leave more than 1,000 on it.'We've already identified, as part of the immigration white paper, a series of occupations that will be taken off what used to be the immigration salary list,' Cooper said. 'The number of occupations on the temporary shortage list will be significantly lower than the number of occupations currently on the immigration salary list.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
A UK industry is still able to hire foreign workers under visa clampdown
Construction workers from abroad will still be able to migrate to the UK despite tighter visa restrictions announced by the government, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, as Labour attempts to slash migration without damaging critical sectors of the economy. Speaking to Parliament's Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Cooper said officials had already identified a series of occupations that would not appear on the new Temporary Shortage List . That list will allow employers to bring workers into the country who would not otherwise be eligible, because the job is classed as below degree level. ALSO READ: Rising costs and visa hurdles push international students beyond the US,UK by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Motivos para escolher um Sofá de Couro [Descubra] Fiori Sofás Saiba Mais Undo But the construction industry, and other sectors needed by the government to support its economic growth ambitions, will still appear on the list. That will come as a relief to firms in the UK who worried that restricting the migrant workforce would hamper their business. (Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates) 'Construction will continue to be on the Temporary Shortage List,' Cooper told lawmakers, adding that the industry would also have to develop a workforce strategy showing how it would train and recruit more British workers over time. Roles 'will only be able to go on the Temporary Shortage List if they are effectively in critical areas, for example those that are critical to the industrial strategy or something like construction.' Live Events ALSO READ: Oxford University opens applications for Rhodes Scholarship Cooper's reassurance to the construction industry comes just weeks after the government unveiled its immigration white paper, which set out a series of changes to the UK's immigration system. Most employers will now only be able to recruit from abroad for roles which are degree level or above, and workers will have to stay in the country for 10 years, rather than five, before they can apply for settled status. Those restrictions were an attempt by Labour to stave off the anti-migrant Reform UK party, which has soared in popularity over the last year and won a slew of council seats in local elections last month. ALSO READ: UK plans stricter rules for migrants seeking permanent residency Currently, the UK has an Immigration Salary List which allows employers to recruit from abroad for over 1,300 roles where there is currently deemed to be a shortage. Being on that list means employers can recruit overseas nationals into those roles on a salary up to 20% below the general threshold. Cooper said that system was too lax, and had contributed to the unprecedented number of migrants coming to the UK while providing no incentive for businesses to hire or train out-of-work Britons. The white paper abolishes the current system to replace it with the Temporary Shortage List. Cooper said the government will cut up to 180 occupations from the current Immigration Salary List — but that would still leave more than 1,000 on it. 'We've already identified, as part of the immigration white paper, a series of occupations that will be taken off what used to be the immigration salary list,' Cooper said. 'The number of occupations on the temporary shortage list will be significantly lower than the number of occupations currently on the immigration salary list.'
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Yvette Cooper faces MPs after record migrant crossings
Yvette Cooper is set to face questions from MPs after record numbers of migrants crossed the Channel over the weekend. Nearly 1,200 made the crossing illegally on Saturday, the highest number of people so far this year. Defence Secretary John Healey later admitted that Britain had 'lost control of its borders'. Ms Cooper, the Home Secretary, will be quizzed by the Home Affairs Committee on issues including small boat crossings at around 2.30. It comes after new Home Office data shows good summer weather could lead to record Channel migrant crossings this year. The number of 'red days' - when Border Force expects a surge in small boats due to calm seas - have been 'unusually high' in 2024-25. Ministers claim the figures go some way to explain why the first five months of this year have seen a record 14,812 crossings, up 42 per cent on the same period in 2024.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The asylum king: How an Essex businessman made a billion from migrant hotels
The scene was a Westminster committee room, the year 2016, and a former Army major, grey-haired and dressed in suit and tie – was facing an uncomfortable line of questioning. James Vyvyan-Robinson, who served with the Royal Green Jackets, was then director of Clearsprings Ready Homes. The company made its money, then as now, by housing asylum seekers in Britain, as contracted to do so by the government. The Parliamentarians grilling Vyvyan-Robinson that February day were not there to congratulate him on the firm's success. '[T]o the outside world, this entire thing looks like a bit of a racket and you have been accused of profiteering,' said Chuka Umunna, then a Labour member of the Home Affairs Committee. '[I]t looks like profiteering at the expense of the Exchequer, and profiteering from people who are desperate and fleeing a perilous situation.' Vyvyan-Robinson countered that Clearsprings provided the service it was contractually required to deliver, adding: 'We are able to do that and make a very slim profit.' Less than 10 years later, that profit doesn't look so slim. This week, it was reported that the founder of Clearsprings Ready Homes, a businessman from Essex called Graham King, had become a billionaire. The 58-year-old's wealth increased by 35 per cent to £1.015 billion in the past year, according to reports, boosted by the rising numbers of people seeking asylum in Britain. Some 38,000 asylum seekers in total are now estimated to be housed in 222 hotels around the country, and another 66,000 on other sites, with Clearsprings being one of the key providers of accommodation, among a handful of others. As thousands continue to arrive via small boats, the cost to the Government of the 10-year asylum contracts is expected to rocket from its initial £4.5bn in 2019 to £15.3bn by 2029, National Audit Office figures suggest. A not inconsiderable share of that money is going to Clearsprings. Vyvyan-Robinson, now 67, resigned as director of the company in 2023, less than a year after he was reported to be living in a £1 million riverside mansion in King remains in control, retaining the majority of shares in the Clearsprings parent company. Now the 154th richest person in the country, as per the 2025 Sunday Times Rich List, he's been dubbed 'the asylum king'. The accommodation his firm has provided, working with various subcontractors, has been dogged by controversy over the years. In 2021, conditions at two sites where Clearsprings was housing asylum seekers, Napier Barracks in Kent and Penally Camp in Pembrokeshire, were branded 'decrepit,' 'impoverished' and 'run down' by inspectors. Two years later, more than 70 people, children among them, protested about conditions at two Clearsprings-run London hotels by sleeping on the street. In fact, the criticism stretches so far back that by the time Vyvyan-Robinson was being questioned by the Home Affairs Committee at Portcullis House in 2016, the firm had already faced negative publicity. At its Lynx House site in Cardiff, nestled in a row of terraced properties, asylum seekers had been made to wear coloured wristbands in order to receive food, a practice that attracted criticism, including from the Committee. 'Do you understand how un-British it is… identifying them as people were identified in an earlier, darker age?' the committee chair asked Vyvyan-Robinson, who for his part said he would not defend the practice. An alternative was already being implemented, he pointed out. It wasn't the only complaint raised about Lynx House, which was also said to be grossly overcrowded. Almost three years after the committee hearing, questions still hung over the standard of some Clearsprings accommodation. Over a 22-month period, little more than a quarter of Clearsprings properties were found to be compliant by Home Office inspectors, Prospect magazine reported. It was citing results published by the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. Almost 15 per cent of inspected Clearsprings properties were reportedly described as 'uninhabitable', and one in 50 as 'unsafe'. But King's wealth grew as the years went on, and as the government continued to outsource the provision of migrant accommodation to for-profit companies. Clearsprings reportedly has an ongoing contract with the Home Office to provide accommodation in southern England and Wales until September 2029. The estimated worth of the contract is said to be £7.3 billion. So, how did King get here? His story starts on Canvey Island, that windswept spit of Essex marshland on the edge of south-east England. It was here that his father, Jack King, moved his family from Romford, East London, in the early 1960s. Jack was also a businessman, a shed salesman who bought a caravan park from the council and transformed it into a lucrative mobile home business. Graham and his brother Jeff spent years working for their father at the site before eventually taking over when he retired. It was sold in 2007 for £32 million. The family reportedly also owned a variety of other businesses, including a car dealership, taxi company and a number of nightclubs (which played host to performers including Shirley Bassey). They were also said to have run an under-18s disco in Leigh, Essex, but local authorities withdrew their licence after receiving a string of complaints about teenagers vandalising vehicles and vomiting in the surrounding streets. Graham's father also served as a local Conservative councillor as well as a financier of the local Canvey Island Football Club, which he helped to win six promotions. Jack 'always took an interest in local politics,' says John Pring, an estate agent who worked with the family. 'He was charming, an excellent businessman, always putting his family first.' Jack died in 2016, but instilled his business sense in his son Graham, says Pring. He describes Graham as 'not to be underestimated, as he learnt from his father'. It's a view that is seemingly borne out by Graham's eye-watering success. Graham King founded Clearsprings at the end of the 20th century. The New Labour government at the time was looking to accommodate asylum seekers across the country, and in 2000, King's firm reportedly signed a five-year contract to be among the providers. It wasn't long before The Observer had published a story headlined 'The king of asylum slums,' describing King as a 'millionaire asylum baron…who often does business from his mobile phone in the back of a black stretch limo.' Bad press wasn't all that King had to deal with. In 2003, he settled a legal battle with his former business partner, Michael Bilkus, who had taken him to the High Court over a verbal agreement about ownership and control of the company. Pring's involvement with Clearsprings, meanwhile, only went as far as drafting out the original application to the government to get the firm onto the tender list for providing migrant accommodation, he says. 'Once they got onto the tender list, I stepped away from it a hundred per cent. It was clear to me that if it was successful, it was going to be a huge business and they needed major commercial expertise to help them bring it off.' Even so, he admits to being 'really surprised' to see it becoming as profitable as it has. By the mid-2000s, Clearsprings' net profits had reportedly risen to £6 million. By January 2023, they stood at £60 million, and the firm was reportedly accommodating about 24,000 asylum seekers in accommodation funded by the taxpayer. A year later, its profits had surged once more, reportedly to the £90 million mark. 'Maybe the government should have looked at the small print a bit better,' suggests Pring, regarding the money-making opportunity this has proved to be. King is reported to have left Canvey Island long ago, moving to a 60-acre farmhouse in a village near Colchester in 2000. He's believed to now split his time between properties in Mayfair, West London, and Monaco. Last year, reports suggested he had embarked on a new adventure as an amateur racing driver and had taken a number of trips to the Caribbean with his Latvian girlfriend, 18 years his junior, having split from his wife. But for all the apparent glamour, his business is still registered to an unprepossessing address just off the A127 in Rayleigh, Essex. Drivers whizzing past on the Southend Arterial Road would hardly guess that the low-rise office building partly concealed behind trees is the base for a company that has made vast sums out of Britain's asylum system. It's a system that many argue is broken; the fact that some people can cash in to this extent is a sign that something has gone wrong, critics contend. In 2023, a group of more than 150 local councillors from different political parties and parts of the country called on the government to stop outsourcing asylum accommodation to profit-making companies. It should be local authorities providing the accommodation themselves, they argued in an open letter to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. 'The Home Office too often looks for short-term fixes, and spends taxpayer money on unaccountable private companies,' the councillors claimed. Certainly, King is not alone in turning a profit out of the UK's migration crisis. Alex Langsam, who owns Britannia Hotels, a chain which has supplied accommodation for asylum seekers, is estimated to be worth £401 million and was ranked at number 311 on this year's Sunday Times rich list. Back in that Westminster committee room in 2016, it seemed the politicians could already see where all this was going. Vyvyan-Robinson's salary at the time exceeded that of the Prime Minister, then Labour MP David Winnick pointed out. The former Army major and King together had 'become prosperous as a result of asylum seekers', Winnick added. If MPs thought this was wrong, it doesn't seem to have changed much. In the years since, as the Government continues to grapple with the question of migration and how to handle it, King's wealth has only grown. The Home Office has been approached for comment. Clearspring has declined to comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Glasgow Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Glasgow Times
Estimated cost of asylum accommodation treble what was expected, says watchdog
The National Audit Office (NAO) published a briefing into the Home Office's contracts for housing asylum seekers on Wednesday to support an inquiry into the issue by the Commons' Home Affairs Committee. Original estimates from the Home Office for asylum accommodation and support contracts totalled £4.5 billion over the 10-year period for 2019-2029, the report said. But, in 2024/2025, the current expected total stands at £15.3 billion over the same period, it said. The watchdog said: 'The Home Office's total spend on asylum accommodation is more than planned and it has few levers to control costs.' It added that the number of people seeking asylum housed in Home Office accommodation rose by 134% between December 2019 and 2024, from 47,000 to 110,000. The watchdog said this was because of the increase in people arriving in the UK by crossing the English Channel and a rise in those claiming asylum who were previously detained under the Conservative government's Illegal Migration Act 2023. So far this year, more than 11,500 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel, a record number for the first five months of the year since data was first collected in 2018. The report also detailed that those temporarily living in hotels accounted for 35% of all people in asylum accommodation, and for about 76% of the annual cost of contracts – £1.3 billion of an estimated £1.7 billion in 2024-25. The findings come ahead of MPs preparing to question contractors Clearsprings Ready Homes, Serco and Mears about their role sourcing and managing asylum accommodation next Tuesday. Reacting to the report, Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley said: 'Dealing with the cost of the asylum accommodation system remains a huge challenge for the Government. 'The NAO report reveals that the cost of these contracts is likely to be over three times what was envisaged when they were drawn up.' On questioning providers, Dame Karen added: 'We want to see why costs have risen so dramatically, but will also be looking at the quality of support that is provided, and will be challenging providers on failures to meet key performance indicators in recent years.' The NAO's report also said data from suppliers 'suggests that hotels may be more profitable than other forms of accommodation', while profit margins for contractors average 7% – which is within the Home Office's original estimate of between 5-13%. The watchdog also reported as of March 31 2025, the Home Office has taken £4 million off suppliers' revenues – accounting for less than 1% – for reported underperformance since 2019. It comes as the Home Office ended the use of supplier Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL), subcontracted by Clearsprings, after its performance and behaviour 'fell short' of expectations. Announcing the move in March, Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle had also told MPs a full audit was being conducted of the supply chain. Reacting to the latest estimate, Reform UK's newest MP Sarah Pochin doubled down on plans for the party, who won control of a number of councils in the local elections, to 'vigorously oppose' asylum accommodation. 'We will use every legal tool available including injunctions, judicial reviews, and planning laws to block the housing of asylum seekers in hotels in the areas we govern.' she said. Meanwhile, 53 organisations providing frontline support to refugees and asylum seekers have written to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper urging for the management of asylum accommodation to be transitioned from private contractors to local authorities or third-sector organisations. Conversation Over Borders, Refugee Action, Refugee Council and others have said the change should focus on 'cost-effective, humane' housing solutions that integrate people seeking asylum into communities they are placed. They added the public's frustration over inadequate housing is 'real and justified' but asylum seekers have been 'unfairly blamed for the strain on these services' as they called for diverted investment into social housing for all. Since the Labour Government came to power in July last year, 23 hotels have been closed while contracts were discontinued at three large sites, such as the Bibby Stockholm barge. Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, is also due to close and be returned to the Ministry of Defence in September. Responding to the NAO's findings, a Home Office spokesperson said: 'As this report shows we inherited an asylum system in chaos with tens of thousands stuck in a backlog, claims not being processed and disastrous contracts that were wasting millions in taxpayer money. 'We've taken immediate action to fix it – increasing asylum decision-making by 52% and removing 24,000 people with no right to be here, meaning there are now fewer asylum hotels open than since the election. 'By restoring grip on the system and speeding up decision making we will end the use of hotels and are forecast to save the taxpayer £4 billion by the end of 2026.'
