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Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ incoming chief economist has launched a review of visa routes to attract “highly talented” people to the UK as concern grows that the government’s clampdown on immigration will come at a cost to the public finances. 

Brian Bell, in his current capacity as chair of the government’s independent Migration Advisory Committee, wrote to home secretary Shabana Mahmood on Friday to announce the review. Bell moves to the Treasury next month to become the department’s chief economic adviser.

The committee would look at “how well the UK’s immigration system allows the highly talented to come to the UK” and what economic and wider value they created, the letter said. 

The MAC launched its initiative a day after Home Office data showed grants of visas to work in the UK fell by a fifth between 2024 and 2025, fuelling warnings from economists that slower growth in the workforce could carve a deep hole in the chancellor’s fiscal plans. 

Migrants on work visas usually pay more in tax than they consume in public services when they first come to the UK, although their long-term fiscal impact can be negative. The high earners Reeves is targeting, however, make a significant lifetime net contribution to the exchequer.

Luring high achievers to the UK was “a key priority of the government”, despite the overall drive to cut immigration, Bell told the FT, referring to the chancellor’s commitment at Davos to “make the UK the destination of choice for top global talent”. 

“We are taking a very open view on how you do that,” Bell added. One set of policy options could be about making the terms of “high talent” visas more attractive, and the application process smoother, for people who already qualify under existing criteria. 

But the MAC could also look at options to widen eligibility, or potentially offer automatic entry to people who had already obtained a high talent visa in another jurisdiction such as the US, Bell said.

The UK could also look at the terms of the EU’s “Blue card” scheme, which primarily selected people on the basis of their salary, rather than more subjective measures of talent, Bell added. 

At present, the UK’s main route to bring in high achievers is the so-called “global talent” visa, aimed at eminent people working in science, engineering, digital technology, the arts and other areas of research. 

This route is increasingly popular with those able to win the necessary endorsement from one of six UK institutions, as it has lower fees than the UK’s main skilled worker visa, offers a faster route to settlement and does not tie the visa holder to an employer. 

This makes it the only visa route open to self-employed entrepreneurs, apart from a little-used “innovator and founder” route that the MAC also plans to review.

But while the “global talent” route is often used by research institutions, it still accounts for relatively small numbers, with fewer than 13,000 people granted such visas in the three years to 2025.

Most of these would have been able to work in the UK on a standard skilled worker visa, sponsored by an employer — and Bell said big tech companies were increasingly hiring through the skilled worker route, before switching to a global talent visa because of the cost advantage. 

Ministers see reform of the route as an opportunity to lure top scientists and tech workers seeking refuge from political instability in the US; and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last year appointed a “global talent” task force looking at ways to make it easier for them to apply. 

In November’s Budget, Reeves pointed to changes to help scientists and designers access the visa — including a longer list of prizes whose winners qualify — as well as the expansion of a “high potential” visa for graduates of the world’s 100 top-ranked universities.