TheCityUK: Response to the Home Office Consultation on Earned Settlement
Professional-sector response to the Home Office consultation on Earned Settlement and settlement reform.
Summary
TheCityUK's response represents the UK-based financial and related professional services sector. It supports the aim of maintaining public confidence in the immigration system but warns that Earned Settlement must be aligned with the Government's wider industrial strategy and the UK's competitiveness as a destination for high-skilled global talent. 5 million people, with two thirds of those jobs outside London.
The submission's central concerns are regional salary variation, dependants, retrospectivity and employer complexity. It says the proposed GBP50,270 and GBP125,140 thresholds do not adequately reflect regional pay, early-career salaries or progression-based careers.
It warns that different settlement clocks for dependants could reduce the attractiveness of the UK to mobile professionals and create uncertainty for children nearing adulthood. On retrospectivity, it states that Skilled Worker migrants already in the UK have a reasonable expectation of settlement after five years and that applying new qualifying periods to them could undermine fairness, stability and regulatory predictability. It recommends a clear transition period or grandfathering protection for people already in the system.
Why this matters for the archive
This is a high-value professional-sector response because it frames transitional protection as an economic-competitiveness and regulatory-predictability issue, not only an individual fairness issue.
Key Observations
- TheCityUK explicitly links immigration predictability to the UK's international financial-centre reputation.
- The response says existing Skilled Worker migrants may already have planned careers, family life and financial commitments around the five-year route.
- It warns that dependants could face significantly different qualifying periods from main applicants, making the UK less attractive to mobile professionals.
- It asks for clear definitions and evidence requirements across character, integration, contribution and residence, with worked examples.