Chloe urges Norwich and Norfolk businesses to give views on immigration

Chloe Smith MP today urged Norwich and Norfolk businesses to give their views on immigration before the government consultation on controlling migration closes on 17th September 2010.

The government is seeking views on how a limit on immigration should work. The consultation includes questions about the coverage of limits as well as the mechanics of how they will work in practice. The consultation also recognises the need to attract more high net worth migrants to the UK through the routes for investors and entrepreneurs, and asks for views on how that can be achieved. The consultation explicitly seeks the views of business and other interested parties.

Chloe says: "I strongly believe that Britain can benefit from migration, but not uncontrolled migration. I think the same is true for us locally in Norfolk and Norwich. Unlimited migration places unacceptable pressure on public services, school places, and the provision of housing, which people often feel is unfair.

Whilst we have to continue to attract the brightest and the best people to the UK, there must be control on numbers. I urge local people and firms to give their views about what most benefits the economy locally."

The consultation will run until 17 September. Permanent limits on non-EU economic migration routes will then be decided and put in place by 1 April 2011.

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the government on migration issues, is carrying out a separate consultation on the levels at which the immigration limit should be set in its first full year, which closed this week.