Fears Brexit could leave Cumbria with severe labour shortage

There are fears thousands of EU nationals, who play a vital role staffing Lakes hotels, are feeling uncertain about their future or are being made to feel ‘unwelcome’, amid a lack of clarity about what will happen when Britain leaves Europe.

If they choose to go home it could leave many hotels facing an employment crisis as they battle to find British workers to fill the void.

Joe Cobb is chair of the Lake District Hotels Association, which employs more than 2,000 people.

He said 33 per cent of staff are from the EU and explained there was a ‘huge concern’ about the shortage of labour ahead of the UK leaving the EU.

“With unemployment levels at 0.6 per cent in South Lakeland, if one per cent of the EU nationals decide to leave and not return, we will be left with a gaping hole,” said Mr Cobb, who is also executive commercial manager for Lake District Country Hotels, whose portfolio includes the Merewood, Briery Wood and Cragwood.

He warned that if 10 per cent or more of those EU nationals leave, some businesses would not be able to trade. 

“It needs to be fully understood that EU nationals contribute an incredible amount to a number of sectors, hospitality, farming, transport to name a few,” he said. 

The tourism and hospitality sector currently supports around 15,000 jobs in Westmorland and Lonsdale and the tourism revenue in South Lakeland comes to more than £1bn.

Some believe that new ‘T Level’ qualifications could help address the potential shortage. First announced in 2016 and backed by £500million every year in additional funding, the qualifications have been dubbed by Government as a ‘key milestone in transforming technical education in the UK’.

They will extend the offer for young people aged between 16 and 19 to study a technical qualification at level 3 - equivalent to A levels.

Available across 15 occupational routes, the vocational qualifications incorporate substantial work placements of up to three months in an aim to get students ready for the workplace.

The first of these new qualifications are set to be rolled out in 2020. However, there is concern that the catering and hospitality qualification will not be available until 2022 - three years after the UK is set to leave the EU.

Clive Wilson, treasurer and former chair of the LDHA said that there was going to be a shortage in trained industry staff once the UK had left the EU.

“We calculated with the exit the UK will need to create 60,000 new jobs a year,” he said. “Which the government is fully aware of.”

He said that he was behind the British Hospitality Association campaign to bring the roll-out of the qualification forward.

“Our campaign is saying why has catering and hospitality been put on to the second phase? It’s just absolutely ridiculous,” Mr Wilson said. 

Under proposed plans EU nationals who have spent five years or less in the UK will have to apply through the Home Office for a residency document over a two-year window.

Those living in the UK lawfully for at least five years will be granted “settled status” and can live, work and claim benefits just as they can now.

But Mr Wilson said there was a ‘lack of clarity’ about what is going to happen.

He said that people were telling him ‘all the time’ that EU workers were leaving the UK. “The first thing is people are feeling unwelcome,” he said.

“And at the moment there is such a lack of clarity of what is going to happen.”

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron has backed the calls to bring the catering and hospitality T Level forward to 2020.

Mr Farron has put down a motion in the House of Commons calling on the government to fast track the qualifications which he believes will help the hospitality industry recruit local people.

“The tourism and hospitality industry is vital to our local economy and that of the whole country,” he said.

“But it stands to be crippled if EU nationals decide to leave the UK and if immigration restrictions mean that new European workers are deterred from moving here.”

However, Mr Cobb argued that the T Levels would not create any additional people, which is what the sector would need if EU nationals were restricted in their ability to access work in the UK. 

“A positive step the government could take and Tim Farron should be pushing is the reference to ‘low skilled jobs’,” he said. “The hospitality industry is often seen as undesirable to UK nationals and the government’s choice of words does the industry no favours.

The creation of a ’T Level’ will not fix the difficulties we face.” Maggie Cawthorn, director of curriculum and quality at Kendal College, said: “I share Tim’s frustrations for the area for what’s a really important industry for us. But in the meantime there will still be the great quality qualifications provided here.”

She also echoed some of Mr Cobb’s comments, saying that there was not enough people wanting to go into the industry.

“It is hard work but it is exciting and you can work all over the world,” she said. 

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are transforming technical education so that young people have the skills and knowledge that employers and the country need. Just this week we published of the T level Action Plan that sets out the progress we have made and our plans for the coming months to implement these important reforms. 

“To get these important reforms right, we will deliver a phased implementation of T levels from September 2020, with all routes available as planned in September 2022. This way of introducing the new qualifications was discussed with employers, providers and awarding organisations.”