Exclusive: Sadiq Khan confident ‘boomerang Londoners’ will return post-pandemic
Sadiq Khan has said he is confident that most of the estimated 700,000 foreign-born workers who have left London since the end of 2019 will return as the UK sheds its Covid restrictions.
Khan told City A.M. in a long-ranging interview, to be released in full later today, that these were “boomerang Londoners” who would likely come back if the economic conditions were good enough.
A study by the government-funded Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence reported in January that 1.3m foreign workers had left the UK since the end of 2019, with around 700,000 of them coming from London.
Many of these are believed to be EU nationals.
The exodus has prompted fears by the hospitality and retail industries that it could lead to a labour shortage in London just as the economy prepares to open up.
“All the evidence we’ve had, anecdotally but also evidence from some of the businesses we’ve spoken to, is these are boomerang Londoners, they’re going to come back and that’s why it’s really important to get the recovery right,” Sadiq Khan said.
“What we don’t want, it would be the worst of all worlds, is if businesses have an employment shortage, which doesn’t make sense at all.
“Some of the sectors they work in, whether it’s their country of origin or other countries, those jobs aren’t there – those jobs are in London.”
If re-elected on Thursday, the London mayor has said he will launch a £6m campaign to get the cogs of central London’s economy moving again on day-one.
It is thought this will include an advertising campaign, events and other ways to incentivise people to improve footfall in places like the West End and the City of London.
However, the3million, an advocacy group for the UK’s EU citizens, said this drive was unlikely to entice the hundreds of thousands of people who left London to return.
The3million co-founder Maike Bohn said: “Some will have exceeded time spent outside the UK and therefore don’t qualify for full settled status due to the strict absence requirements – they would have to come back under the new immigration regime which for many is prohibitive.
“Some have a brighter future elsewhere in Europe – we have seen many healthcare professionals leave who have been offered work in their countries of origin, and similarly many artists and creatives feel they have greater prospects and mobility being based in the EU.
“Finally some EU citizens with the more precarious pre-settled status know they can’t afford to return and pay the high London rents while their access to benefits and support is cast in doubt.”
A spokesperson for hospitality lobby group UKHospitality said the past year’s London exodus was already beginning to bite for many businesses.
“Sector businesses are experiencing recruitment challenges for specific roles, and this is just one of the many negative effects stemming from a prolonged period of closure that hospitality has suffered,” they said.
“Some of these workers will have moved to different sectors that have been open, along with some EU staff and foreign workers who have returned home during the past year and are now unable to return to the UK because of travel restrictions.”