UK immigration cap unfair on small businesses

Plans to continue excluding intra-company transfers from the forthcoming cap on migration could see small businesses in the UK put at a competitive disadvantage, it has been claimed.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has voiced its concerns after prime minister David Cameron indicated earlier this week that large organisations could be free to transfer workers from outside the EU to the UK despite the forthcoming introduction of an immigration cap supposedly putting a halt to such moves.

Phil McCabe, a spokesman for the forum, said: “We appreciate that immigration is a sensitive issue, particularly in the current climate of high unemployment and strained public services.

“However, if the government is going to restrict economic migration, it should do it in a way which affects businesses of all sizes equally. To give huge multi-national corporations another competitive advantage over small businesses strikes us as being completely unfair.”

Mr McCabe added that the creation of a big business-only loophole would “fly in the face” of the coalition’s promises to help small businesses in the UK.