I


was in Frankfurt airport recently. At the border control, the official took an unusually long time to


inspect my passport. Then he asked me how many days I’d spent in the European Union during the previous six months. Responding that I had no idea, he gleefully informed me that if I’d spent over 90 days out of the last 180-day period in the EU, I was liable to pay a fine. I didn’t know that: did you? I left the desk aware that the


current visa and travel regulations are a potential barrier to entering the EU from the UK. The same can be said for the UK visa system for those coming here. In both cases, there’s clearly a benefit to resolving matters that could otherwise act as a block to inward investment, for the self-evident reason that in a competitive environment one key consideration about where you put your people is where you can do it most speedily and inexpensively. A lot has been written about


the ‘hostile environment’ some accuse the UK of engendering for migration to Britain. There’s a larger debate to be had on this. All that really concerns professional relocation is that element pertaining to business people coming here for any length of time to work. Thus, this has been an area of focus for the Association of Relocation Professionals (ARP). It’s clear a good visa system


facilitates entry of employees across a very wide range of skill and qualification levels. We don’t only need captains of industry. Ask anyone in the catering and hospitality sectors and they’ll tell you they primarily need staff where the primary qualities are specific technical knowledge of a particular task or generally good people skills. At present, filling those types of vacancies has turned into something of a nightmare because it’s challenging to get workers into the country, the visa system being an obstacle in that process. For all these reasons, the ARP is seeking to


enhance the visa relocation process into an asset, not an albatross. It must be said that if you know


your way ‘around the system,’ then its complexity might actually be something of an advantage to your relocation business. Since not everyone understands it, this can give you a head start in attracting trade from those in need of professional assistance. However, small and medium sized firms in particular may recoil from the time and cost of attempting to navigate a visa regime which partly responds to how one answers certain questions, rather than merely to the content of those answers. From a strategic point of view, if we get the visa system right as a whole, this will increase the size of the relocation market in a way that assists the sector more than any local advantage gained from the system’s complexity. Simplification will yield a bounty of opportunity for firms with the initiative to capitalise on the increased fluidity a more user-friendly application processes offers.


BILLIONS OF VALUE What do the economic numbers tell us? ARP figures indicate the total direct value of the inward investment relocation sector to the UK economy is around £7bn per annum. This figure is based on the number of individuals who are relocated into the UK per annum, together with their average salary. When the net value these individuals add to their businesses is factored in, the total added value is in the region of £21bn. London alone benefits from inward relocation to the tune of about £4bn per annum, a net addition of around 0.8% to the £500bn


annual GDP of the Capital – meaning that relocation makes a large continuous contribution to turnover in London. This also illustrates how a sensible relocation strategy could also add a substantial boost to the much vaunted ‘levelling up’ policy so often mentioned of Ministers. It goes without saying that the Government’s tax take is pretty considerable from all this – amounting to billions a year. We’re doing research to learn even more about this, but it’s already evident that the financial case for getting this right is compelling.


THE PLAN So, what’s the plan? It’s simple: to reach out to the Home Office and offer a strategic, expert-based partnership between relocation practitioners and the Ministry to create time-saving improvements to the visa application process and categories – without compromising the integrity of the relocation system in terms of protecting the interests of UK border security. To achieve this, the ARP has set up a relocation working group to identify the issues, explore solutions and converge on next steps. Our touchstone for any improvements is proportionality between rigorous checking in the system balanced against the resistance this creates. The working group is composed


of volunteers from various relocation firms that have agreed to supply people to act together in the common interest of creating a more user-friendly visa system. The terms of reference of the group ensure nobody needs to share any commercially sensitive information with competitors. This enables us to benefit from collective wisdom and


“It’s clear a good visa system facilitates entry of employees across a very wide range of skill and qualification levels. We don’t only need captains of industry.”


43


THINK GLOBAL PEOPLE UK VIS A S


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56