Home Secretary announces new visa plan for entrepreneurs

Move follows statements of disquiet from the technology sector

Home Secretary Savid Javid has announced plans for a new type of visa for entrepreneurs who want to work in the UK.

In a statement the Home Office said the new visas "will widen the applicant pool of talented entrepreneurs and make the visa process faster and smoother for entrepreneurs coming to the UK."

Significantly, the move was announced during London Tech week, a series of promotional events designed to highlight the technology sector. Many in this sector have expressed their concerns about increasingly strict immigration criteria, raising the spectre of being starved of talent in the run up to Brexit and thereafter.

The new visa would replace the existing one for graduates "opening it up to a wider pool of talented business founders," the Home Office says. Its introduction is planned for Spring 2019.

The Home Office statement gives few details about qualifications for the planned visa or the numbers expected to apply, beyond saying that an endorsement from a university or approved business sponsor, including accelerators, will be required by applicants.

Seamus Nevin, head of policy research for the Institute of Directors, welcomed the announcement.

"Reforming the UK entrepreneurs' visa system to make it easier and quicker for those people looking to move here to start a business, create employment and wealth is a very positive step," he told the FT.

Yesterday the FT reported that 1,946 IT professionals from outside the European Economic Area had been refused visas since November because of restrictions on the availability of 'Tier 2' visas for professionals, making it the second worst affected sector after medicine.

Major technology firms including IBM and Amazon were among those warning in April that Brexit poses a 'significant threat' to business, citing a shortage of skilled workers and the possible necessity of moving head offices.

In February, the Public Accounts Committee warned that the government had grossly undersetimated the need for technical and digital skills.