(Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The UK’s finance minister Rishi Sunak has announced a new “scale-up” visa to attract highly skilled workers from abroad to the country’s fastest-growing companies.
The visa, revealed in Wednesday’s Autumn Budget, will allow individuals to come to the UK if they have a highly skilled job offer from a qualifying employer—defined as a company with a minimum of 10 employees and a growth rate of over 20% for either annual average revenue or employment over a three-year period. Eligible candidates will be able to switch jobs and extend their stay in the UK long-term.
The UK’s tech ecosystem is facing a shortage of highly skilled workers due to Brexit and a boom in investment that has led to a surge in hiring. The number of advertised open tech roles is currently 42% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to a September report from Tech Nation and jobs search engine Adzuna.
In another move to boost immigration of tech workers, Sunak said the government will launch global talent network aimed at attracting skilled workers from overseas in key science and tech sectors. It will launch initially in the Bay Area, Boston and Bangalore.
Sunak also announced, as part of the budget, £1.6 billion (about $2.2 billion) for the British Business Bank’s regional financing programs, which provide debt and equity finance to small and medium enterprises. The Regional Angels program, which aims to reduce imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance in the UK, will also receive £150 million of funding.
