http://tech.newstatesman.com/guest-opinion/entrepreneur-tech-sector-tier-2-visas

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister made a slew of announcements to mark London Tech Week, including a replacement for the existing Graduate Entrepreneur route. This will allow both graduates and non-graduates who want to start a business in the UK to apply for the snappily-titled “start-up” visa. TechUK is fully aligned with the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place to start a digital business and this clearly fits that agenda. So, this is very welcome. However, continuing to concentrate solely on entrepreneurs risks ignoring a bigger problem. Entrepreneurs need to be able to access world class talent to drive their businesses, and that means that they sometimes need to source that talent from around the world. That is becoming a lot harder.

Thanks to an FOI from CaSE, we know that 1,200 tech workers with job offers in the UK were denied entry due to the arbitrary Tier 2 cap between December 2017 and March 2018 alone. In these uncertain times the UK cannot afford to turn away skilled workers who will make our economy stronger, create more jobs for UK workers and contribute in many other ways to our culture and communities.