Paying extra to employ 'foreign' workers

Anyone who lives in the North has no idea of the massive amounts of house building going on down here.

Living where I do in Oxfordshire, I can say that house building here is almost 'going mad!' My own village has doubled in size ( and was large to start with) and there are hundreds more in the pipeline.Every village between here and Wiltshire practically has houses just built, half built and about to be built.
This has been going on for the past five years.

25th August 2016: "139,030 new homes were completed in the year to June and have continued to build gradually over the last 2 years. More than 144,280 homes were started in the year to June 2016. Delivery in London saw 24% more homes being built in the year to June 2016 than the previous year with local authorities in Greenwich and Waltham Forest seeing completions soar 126% and 103% respectively over the same period.
And in Swindon and Wakefield completions were up 104% and 41% respectively.
Figures published last year show that the total number of new homes across the country rose by 2t% in 2014 to 2015, when taking in to account all homes, including new builds, houses that have been converted into flats and buildings whose use has been changed to residential." Source: Gov.UK Deptford for Communities and Local Government.
I really don't know why you would take anything that Corbyn says at face value. Have another look at the stats I gave you earlier.

OK Anya, got your message, I stand corrected! Sorry - and I can't blame you or anyone else for getting hot under the collar about it, it seems a crazy idea.

MaizieD are not allowed to voice our opinion then? If we don't agree with gillybob?

I should have plastered my comment with , shouldn't I?

You clearly haven't been following threads on here particularly. gillybob runs a small business and has at least one trainee, British. What you said in your post was a bit insulting to business owners.

Typical of those on the left.

I am biting my tongue very, very hard here.

I really don't know why you would think someone else should do your research and prove your point for you Chewbacca.

Full Fact did a fact check on a comment made by Jeremy Corbyn that "...house building has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s..." on 28 September 2016, and it has certainly been contiuously dropping since the 1970's when the population was nearer to that of today and we were not being bombed.

As you wish GracesGranMK2. And I shall remain unconvinced that "there isn't much building going on at the moment".

Does that actually say that we are building more house than we did after WW2, Chewbacca? It just seems to be various lists. I will look at it but if it is just that I don't think it evidences your statement. I have found one article that says last year we built the most in eight years - not that that is a lot to write home about from what I have seen of the figures over those years.

Don't you think someone would be commenting - the Tories proclaiming it loudly - if we had reached (presumably pro rata) such a level of success? I am sorry but I am so far unconvinced.

Here you go GracesGranMK2

www.gov.uk/government/collections/house-building-statistics

Our young people would not do that.

The Tories say we have full employment and they have been the government for the last seven years and you really can't have it both ways Marieeliz. If our youngsters are currently in full employment how or why could or would they be doing the jobs that only offer low wages and sharing accommodation in HMO's?

Or do we not have full employment? What are the youngsters among your family and friends looking for at the moment? Are they unemployed or underskilled?

^ We're currently going through the biggest property building programme since the 2nd world war!^

Really? Can you reference this for me Chewbacca? I seem to have the wrong idea about this and would love to see the figures.

Slightly off topic but it may(?) answer some of Yorkshiregels concerns re educating our young people. It would be interesting if someone could tell us what the Tories intend. The Labour Party policy is:

On Education Funding
Bring funding for 16 to 18-year-olds in line with Key Stage 4 baselines, while ensuring that the budget is distributed fairly between colleges and school sixth forms.
Increase capital investment to equip colleges to deliver T Levels.
16 to 18-year-olds
Support broad aims of Sainsbury Review, but would ensure the routes include the service sector and traditional manufacturing.
Restore the Education Maintenance Allowance for 16 to 18-year-olds from lower and middle income backgrounds.
Scrapping new technology colleges and redirecting money saved to increase teacher numbers in FE.
Drive up quality and consistency in the FE sector by:
• Encouraging cooperation and leadership across colleges and sixth forms
• improving curriculum breadth and quality
• Setting a target, backed up by funding, for all teaching staff to have a teaching qualification within five years.
Reverse the decision to decouple the AS Level with the A Level.
Careers advice
Improve careers advice and guarantee face-to face careers advice for every pupil.
Apprenticeships/ skills
An official pre-apprenticeship trainee programme
Set a target to double the number of completed apprenticeships at NVQ Level 3 by 2022.
Give employers more flexibility in how the levy is deployed, including allowing the levy to be used for pre-apprenticeship programmes
Maintain the apprenticeship levy while taking measures to ensure high quality by requiring the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to report on an annual basis to the Secretary of State on quality outcomes of completed apprenticeships.
Protect the £440 million funding for apprenticeships for small-and medium sized employers who don’t pay the levy
Guarantee trade union representation in the governance structures of the Institute of Apprenticeship
Set targets to increase apprenticeships for people with disabilities, care leavers and veterans, and ensure broad representation of women, BME, LGBT and people with disabilities in all kinds of apprenticeship
Consult on introducing incentives for large employers to over-train numbers of apprentices to fill skills gaps in the supply chain and the wider sector
Increase number of apprenticeships in the creative industries
Young people
Lower the voting age to 16
Lifelong learning
Introduce free lifelong learning in FE colleges
^Replace Advanced Learner Loans and upfront course fees with direct funding, making FE courses free at the point of use, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.

MaizieD are not allowed to voice our opinion then? If we don't agree with gillybob? Typical of those on the left.

GRACESGRANMK2 11.39
We still train bricklayers (difficult to get any apprenticeships as we are not building very much), plumbers and engineers

This statement isn't correct at all! We're currently going through the biggest property building programme since the 2nd world war! If there are no apprenticeships available in the building industry in the current climate, there never will be!

The employers are too lazy to do it

I wouldn't let gillybob hear you saying that, Marieeliz

Yes, Womble54 and Yorkshiregirl. It is an easy and cheap way out for employers to take on staff from abroad, who think they are in clover here on low wages and sharing accommodation in HMO's. Our young people would not do that. They need to spend more money on training staff they need from UK. The employers are too lazy to do it. I don't mean necessarily Government doing the training it is the employers.

Thanks GG2

It has been mooted that this might extend to EU workers too, but hotly denied so far. Xenophobic though it may sound, I have no objection to championing the employment of British workers over imported talent. But when companies cannot cannot get the skilled workers they need, or when we haven't enough doctors to staff our NHS.....

Maizie, Anya, this is a bit out of my league but I thought it worth just copying what was there. I think he will be waiting to see when we get to the point that this applies to EU workers as you suggest Maizie, after all that will be two years minimum plus any transitional years. It seems to me that by doubling the amount they will skew the market place and annoy countries we could have potential deals with even more than we have already done over the years.

Thanks Maizie I've been trying to get that message across.

Soldiersailor sorry you are completely wrong

Bloody hell! Do people just make it up or what? This is nothing to do with fines on illegal immigrants, you obviously CBA'd to read the link ...

This is a levy on firms legally recruiting skilled workers' repeat skilled workers,from non-EU countries. These are skills our own workforce don't possess - yet.

Yorkshiregel how are we expected to train up our doctors (just one example) in time? Firstly it takes 7 (?) years (at least) what go we do in the meantime especially as this load of toss pots government is cutting the bloody education budget. The school GS1 will attend in September will loose funding equivalent to 22 teachers

22 teachers

Try training up our our young people under that regime.

I'm a bit puzzled by Ed Cooke's applying this to non EU workers only. He does realise that we're leaving the EU, so, presumably, the levy will apply to all non British workers from the date we leave, doesn't he?

Also, worth reminding people that the £1,000 per foreign worker levy has only just come into force in April of this year. So the effects of that haven't really taken hold yet.

Doubling the Immigration Skills Charge: What is is?
The charge is levied on companies employing migrant workers. The Conservatives have proposed doubling it to £2,000 a year by the end of the parliament, using the revenue generated to invest in higher level skills training for workers in the UK.
What do people think?
Ed Cooke, chief executive of retail industry body Revo, said: “The moves to reduce immigration and increase punitive measures for firms employing non-EU workers will have a disproportionate effect on the retail and retail property sectors, which contribute more than £20bn in taxes to the economy. Given the ongoing economic uncertainty and wavering consumer confidence, retailers in particular would be forgiven for thinking they are fighting a war on two fronts, should these policies be implemented.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/19/nine-ways-conservative-manifesto-affects-businesses/

I am trying my hardest to get a painter and decorator to do a fairly big job inside after an unfortunate accident The insurance side is all sorted and carpets ready and waiting to be laid but first I need the decorator to do his or her bit. I have contacted 18 so far and only 5 have coot back to me,three were from Poland and the.other two from somewhere outside the Euro. Could someone advise me how to put British first in this case

I'm pretty sure this will be implemented and it will have a big impact in many sectors pushing costs/prices up
- NHS - does not train enough people to meet needs - nursing applications have dropped sharply since the government abolished bursaries - so even less money for patient care
- care homes - many overseas staff so prices will rise to people funding themselves more
- agriculture - increased food prices if it cost £2,000 before a cabbage has been picked

Perhaps there will be demand from UK workers to work in care homes or pick crops - but it seems unlikely

Yet another example of the Tories wanting to do away with the NHS???