Finance Monthly - November 2021 Edition

35 Finance Monthly. Bus i ne s s & Economy “Higher demand and restricted supply equals inflation: there’s no way out of it. You put all these things together and it’s a perfect storm.” The chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, Shane Brennan, also agrees that the pandemic is to blame for the UK’s supply chain crisis, but he also pointed out that Brexit was limiting options for solutions. Are New Immigration Laws Contributing to the Supply Chain Crisis? Some critics argue that Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision to shut the door to low-skilled workers in new immigration laws is the major contributing factor in the UK’s supply chain crisis. A spokesperson for the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), which commissioned the Grant Thorton report, said that EU policy was not to blame for the issue. Instead, the BMPA blamed the Home Office’s domestic policy on who can and can’t come to the UK to work. Retailers, meat processing plants, care homes, hospitality, and even big companies such as Amazon, are all competing for low-skilled, low-paid workers who are in very limited supply. This means that, even if there were plenty of lorry drivers on the roads, the UK’s supply chain would still have come under substantial strain from labour shortages. Initially, the UK Government rejected all calls to attempt to resolve the country’s supply chain crisis by issuing short-term visas to lorry drivers and workers from the EU, insisting that Brexit was the solution. However, in a major u-turn, the government has since confirmed a temporary visa scheme for 5,000 foreign HGV drivers as well as 5,500 poultry workers. The move aims to provide last-resort means of avoiding an escalation of the UK’s supply chain crisis before the festive season, with the government also announcing increasing funding for training and releasing a letter encouraging ex-HGV drivers to return to their former profession. The cause of the UK’s supply chain crisis is still being hotly debated. However, the general consensus appears to be that, while it may have contributed to the problem, the COVID-19 pandemic did not break the retail supply chain altogether. Ultimately, it seems that several different factors are to blame and, with several issues being much harder to fix than just one, experts are warning that the UK’s supply chain crisis could take a long time to fix.