FOLLOWING the Home Secretary’s push to drive immigration down, a leading Cumbrian business figure has said there aren’t enough people to fill the available jobs within the county.

The Home Secretary’s speech in London stressed the need for the Tories to re-commit to the party’s 2019 manifesto, which on immigration promised “fewer lower-skilled migrants and overall numbers will come down”.

She said ‘there is no good reason’ why Britain can’t train HGV drivers and fruit pickers to drive down immigration figures during the National Conservatism conference on May 15.

But managing director of Cumbria’s Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne Caldwell, said there is already a ‘desperate shortage’ within the county of those working, particularly within hospitality and social care.

“It’s clear, not just from our research but from a range of research and data, that we have a desperate shortage of people in Cumbria.

“If demand in hospitality appears to have eased off a bit it’s because people have reduced their opening hours and services because it’s so hard to get staff.

“This reduces their opportunities to profitable and to grow and impacts on the experience for our visitors - and for residents,” she said.

A recent survey from Cumbria Tourism revealed the stark reality that 86 per cent of tourism businesses believe recruitment of staff continues to be a problem.

Ms Caldwell said there has to be a lot of work to be done getting ‘inactive people’ into the workplace, such as those with disabilities and health conditions as well as care leavers.

“The stats for care leavers are a sad reflection on us all. I believe national stats are 41 per cent, 18-21 NEET (a young person who is no longer in the education system and who is not working) compared with 8 per cent overall,” she said.

The number of young people who are NEET has risen to 788,000, which is a 13 per cent increase in one year, according to Ofcom.

“The challenge in care has been made worse by sectors like the visitor economy having to increase wages.

"Many jobs in care are very low-paid and the sector isn’t funded well enough to really address that. 

"So even people who want to be in the sector are leaving for better paid, and you’d have to say easier, opportunities in retail, hospitality, etc.

“The talk of moving to a high-wage economy is great but these jobs need doing and can’t be paid better unless the businesses can make enough to enable that,” she said.