UK urged to reinvest immigration levies in workforce training while attracting skilled migrants

The United Kingdom (UK) government has been urged to reinvest immigration levies (what employers pay to sponsor foreign workers) into workforce training while maintaining a policy that attracts high-skilled migrants to support economic growth.

Sir David Gauke, a former Conservative justice minister, backed proposals to channel revenue from employer-paid immigration charges into developing the domestic workforce, arguing that the approach would help reduce the UK’s long-term reliance on overseas labour without deterring the skilled professionals the economy needs.

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More specifically, he argues that the UK should actively compete for highly skilled migrants, entrepreneurs and specialists who can contribute to economic growth, rather than focusing solely on reducing migration numbers.

He maintains that while immigration should remain controlled and borders secure, policy should also support growth by attracting people who create jobs, invest and drive innovation.

 “A strong economy should be the nation’s priority. It is only through a strong economy that we can improve living standards, fund our public services and give the next generation the opportunities the last one had. A serious, selective immigration policy is one of the levers that helps deliver it”.

“Immigration has to be controlled, and public trust in the whole system depends on secure and well-managed borders. But if the debate stops there, we miss the point. The question that matters for growth is whether Britain is competing hard enough for the migrants who create wealth. On the current evidence, the answer is no”.

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“But numbers alone are not a strategy, and it is possible to bring net migration down while at the same time deterring the entrepreneurs and specialists the economy needs and doing nothing to rebuild the domestic pipeline. There is a serious argument to be had about how immigration policy can serve growth”, he said.

A new paper by Prosper UK, titled ‘An Immigration Plan for Economic Growth’, argues that while the government’s efforts to reduce migration have succeeded in bringing down overall numbers, they may also be discouraging the high-skilled workers needed to drive productivity and investment. 

Official figures show that net migration more than halved to 171,000 in the year to December 2025. At the same time, Home Office data revealed that applications for Skilled Worker visas from main applicants fell 40 percent year-on-year to 33,100 in the year ending April 2026.

Around 136,000 more British nationals left the UK than arrived in 2025, with the gap widening each year since 2022. At the same time, more than one million people aged between 16 and 24 remain outside employment, education or training, underscoring the need for policies that both attract global talent and strengthen the domestic workforce.

“The harder question is whether the reforms delivering that fall are also driving away the specialists, senior executives and entrepreneurs the economy depends on,” the report notes.

Prosper UK said the key challenge is no longer simply reducing migration, but ensuring that immigration reforms do not undermine the country’s economic competitiveness.