FROM JULY'S 2016 RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Low corporation tax, a well-run R&D tax credit system, Patent Box and the work of UKTI are all examples of how government is helping to make the UK a great place to grow a globally competitive tech firm.

Unfortunately, we now face a situation of ‘what the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away’. The government’s inability or unwillingness to distinguish between skilled and unskilled immigration is in danger of crippling UK start-ups and stunting the growth of UK technology as a whole. In fact, the UK skills shortage is now so severe that concerns about the inability to find the right people, expressed in high tech for the last number of years, are now being raised across numerous sectors including accountancy, marketing and creative industries etc.

The government’s visa policy is confusing, expensive, time consuming and opaque. The system has become more expensive and complex over the last five years in direct correlation to the skills shortage becoming more severe. 

Under the German ‘Blue Card’ scheme an individual can themselves obtain a work permit if they are degree-qualified and in receipt of a job offer in excess of around €39k or £30.9k (look Theresa May, no costly licences necessary!). 

This is the policy of a government that recognises that a skills shortage leads to lost tax revenue and reduced competitiveness. The Home Office seems to want to punish companies who want to try to grow in a skills-short environment. Should UK companies really be having to pay handsomely for the privilege of trying to compete globally and, in doing so, contribute to the health of UK plc?

And of course Brexit must be mentioned in this context. I am personally in the Remain camp, and believe that access to EU skills is key to the health of the UK technology sector. However, whether we stay in or leave the EU, the fundamental message is the same: the UK government needs to change its stance toward skilled immigration. 

MPs and civil servants throughout the land should be patting themselves on the back for helping to create a thriving, dynamic and competitive technology community … but those efforts will have been in vain if the sapling-sized start-ups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) can’t grow up into Apple (other fruits are available) trees.

Neil Dickins is founder/director at technology specialist recruiters Intellectual Capital Resources