It has been described as a disaster for the hospitality industry.The Chief executive of trade association UK Hospitality Kate Nicholls said the new rules would be “disastrous” for the hospitality industry, which largely relies on EU immigration.
The Government’s proposals are that from January, all EU immigration applicants will need to speak English, have a job offer in the UK with a salary of at least £25,600 and to have never been given a custodial sentence of 12 months or more.
The points-based system will also preference people who have job offers in areas where there are skills shortages or if they have tertiary qualifications.
The man who heads the Manchester Hoteliers Association and is the General Manager of the Lowry Hotel Adrian Ellis agrees with much of the comment.”My initial take was that it will be a big challenge for our industry and I can’t recall a bigger one for some time.
Adrian adds that many hotels across the region have European staff and at the moment there are no comprehensive plans in place to deal with it although a meeting is planned for March.
The Government believes that the gap can be filled by people not in employment at the moment, retirees, long term unemployed, those with sickness issues.”We will focus on that tier of employment, Adrian tells us.
But maybe one of the main points is that a training campaign needs to be put in place across the city.”We will also look hard and fast at the schools and colleges pipeline, but to be frank and honest with us, we also need to look hard and fast at how we can become more efficient as operators, ie do more with less.”
Adrian adds: “As time goes by even with our most optimistic hat on it will definitely be challenging and we will have to face up to the fact that there will probably be sizeable shortages in the industry and we will have to cut our cloth more efficiently”
UK Hospitality are currently discussing with the government as to whether there are any short term solutions available, will there be a cooling off period and a period of adjustment.
Are the,we asked, signs that European staff are already leaving? No was the answer but they are not applying in the numbers that we once had.”we are encouraging all our current European staff to sign and stay with us.”
As for the other side of the coin, has there been a downturn in European visitors? Currently no, whether that will happen in time to come, well that depends on how the Brexit situation resolves itself but it is unaffected at this time.
Perhaps more worrying though is the fact that the skill base to work in the industry from the UK side is not currently in place.”there needs to be a significant training campaign in our industry and of course its not just us who are affected, factories, transportation,agriculture are all facing the same issues.
Adrian’s worse fears are that come the 1st January, things will very quickly dry up, especially in Manchester compounded by a huge growth in hotelier supply combined with a reduction in the people available to work.
Could this impact then on future development in Manchester? Possibility yes I think so, there are 28 hotels opening in the next three years and we may find that projects in the second and third years are delayed or could switch to become apartment hotels, as the situation could be so dire that operators think it is not tenable to open another hotel in what is already a difficult situation”
“Manchester is fast and dynamically growing centre for a lot of industry including hotels and hospitality.if that starts being hampered simply because of skills shortages, i think that it will slow down the growth of tourism, its growth as an international destination and it will impact on reputation and the view from the outside”
