Before the salary changes last April, architectural firms were able to recruit architects from the EU at ease as the profession was on the shortage occupation list – a list that also covered NHS workers.
Marcia Longdon, an immigration partner at Kingsley Napley, said the changes were having a knock-on effect on firms’ ability to staff projects and progress work, with clients reporting the salary threshold was “simply too high for this sector”.
It is now urging her to give an answer, reduce the salary threshold and return the profession to the shortage occupation list, now known as the immigration salary list.
Mouzhan Majidi, the chief executive of Zaha Hadid Architects, which has designed projects from the stingray-shaped swimming pool building in London’s Olympic Park to BMW’s headquarters in Leipzig, said the global success of the sector in the UK depended on the ability to recruit architects.
The law firm Kingsley Napley, which is acting on behalf of several big London practices including Zaha Hadid Architects, Make Architects and HTA Design, said it had had no reply to a letter sent to Cooper in December.
