The skills shortage in the United Kingdom has created opportunities for South African businesses to hire and recruit staff locally and relocate them to the UK. According to Saskia Johnston from immigration specialists Sable International, the British government is particularly interested in entrepreneurs and tradespeople, especially bricklayers. “Why bricklayers?” you might ask. Johnston explains, “The average South African bricklayer lays about a thousand bricks a day, compared to the average British bricklayer who lays around three hundred.” Additionally, South African bricklayers can earn three times what they make at home. Cable layers are also in high demand. In an interview with BizNews, Johnston outlines the route entrepreneurs should follow to establish businesses in the UK, the challenges they may encounter, and the steps they should take.
Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.
Watch here
Listen here
Highlights from the interview
In a recent interview, Saskia Johnston from Sable International discussed the opportunities and challenges for South African entrepreneurs looking to establish businesses in the UK. Johnston highlighted that the UK’s severe skills shortage over the past few years has opened doors for South African businesses to expand. This shortage, particularly in trades like bricklaying and plumbing, provides a niche for South Africans to relocate their skilled staff to the UK.
Johnston explained that while UK business incorporation laws remain stable, immigration regulations have become more complex. South African entrepreneurs often incorporate their business in the UK and appoint a local office holder to manage logistics. To employ international staff, they must register as a licensed sponsor with the UK Home Office, which allows them to sponsor workers from any country, including South Africa.
The interview revealed that while high-skilled roles like engineering are always in demand, there is a growing shortage of entry-level skilled tradespeople in the UK. This has increased South African businesses sending workers like welders and bricklayers to fill the gaps. Johnston noted that many South African companies have successfully expanded to the UK despite challenges, such as obtaining a corporate bank account.
Johnston also explained that working in the UK on a skilled worker visa can eventually lead to permanent residency and citizenship after a six-year path. South Africans are valued for their work ethic and productivity, making them highly sought after in the UK market.
Edited transcript of the interview
Linda van Tilburg (00:05.454)
With a growing interest among South Africans in establishing businesses in the United Kingdom, many are left wondering about the best approach to achieve this. To shed light on the process, we have Saskia Johnston from Sable International here in the Biz News studio.
Linda van Tilburg (00:31.138)
Are there opportunities for South African entrepreneurs in the UK?
Saskia Johnston (00:37.175)
Very much so. I think in the last three or four years in the UK, the skill shortage that the UK has experienced has been becoming more and more severe. As such, we are seeing a lot of South African entrepreneurs that run successful businesses in the South African market look at the UK as a great opportunity to expand their business into a new market. The kind of niche competitive edge for those entrepreneurs is the ability to hire and recruit staff in South Africa and relocate them to service the UK business.
Linda van Tilburg (01:10.968)
So, have there been any changes in legislation to set up a business in the UK?
Saskia Johnston (01:17.837)
For setting up a business in the UK, there haven’t been many changes in legislation, but there have been some considerable changes in terms of the immigration legislation. It has to do with the way that you can redeploy resources from one country to another. The immigration law in the UK is changing all the time, so it definitely keeps us on our toes. There have been some fundamental changes to the types of roles that can qualify for sponsorship or a skilled worker visa in the UK.
Linda van Tilburg (01:45.976)
What are the preferred routes for South African businesses?
Saskia Johnston (01:50.761)
Generally speaking, if a business is looking to expand to the UK market, they would go through the process of incorporating the business and getting all the logistics in place. Very often, that would also involve having a UK resident office holder, such as a UK resident company secretary or director. We find that can really help with the logistical setup of a business when they have somebody on the ground in the UK.
In terms of redeploying personnel, they’d go through the process of registering as a licensed sponsor in the UK. This involves a registration with the UK Home Office in order to sponsor migrant workers from other countries. So, it’s not specific to South Africa, but once a UK business is a licensed sponsor, they can sponsor migrants from anywhere around the world. However, specific to South African entrepreneurs, they like the route because they can redeploy their skilled resources from their South African business to help with the UK business expansion, where their local competitors in the UK may really struggle to find key personnel to fulfil those types of roles.
The Home Office has changed some of the legislation around the skilled worker visa and the shortage occupation list. For example, bricklayers, plumbers, electricians—those types of roles have been very high up on the shortage occupation list, which we haven’t seen before.
Linda van Tilburg (03:09.250)
Well, construction companies are reportedly high in demand in the UK. Is this consistent with the trends you’ve been observing?
Saskia Johnston (03:18.701)
Very much so. Just last month we helped a South African business send across 22 welders to the UK. We’ve never seen anything like that before. But the reality is that the building and construction industry in the UK is absolutely booming, and the local businesses in those areas are often struggling to fulfil the work due to the resourcing constraints within the UK skill shortage.
Linda van Tilburg (03:43.214)
Are they not only looking for highly skilled workers like engineers from university? Are they looking for plumbers and other trades people?
Saskia Johnston (03:53.261)
I think it’s across the board. Engineers have always been in high demand in the UK. So that’s not necessarily new, and they still are in very high demand in the UK. But I think what is new is the more entry-level skills. So, the bricklayers, the plumbers, the electricians, the welders, ship sprayers—those types of roles are really new to have such a shortage and are really being seen as quite skilled roles in the UK. Whereas in the South African market, you wouldn’t necessarily consider these professions as skilled as they are currently viewed in the UK.
Linda van Tilburg (04:26.296)
What about experts on AI? Would people emigrate for that or work remotely?
Saskia Johnston (04:35.437)
In terms of those types of roles, they would obviously have to emigrate. There are a range of roles in the UK that people do work remotely. We’ve seen that trend since COVID, where people were hiring data technicians or programmers offshore, and I think that trend has continued. We are definitely seeing the trend in the UK market as a whole with a return to the office. We are observing that many more businesses go to the office than not, whereas about two years ago, the common trend was more out of office than in.
Linda van Tilburg (05:11.704)
What are the challenges South African entrepreneurs face when setting up businesses in the UK?
Saskia Johnston (05:20.045)
I think the UK is quite open to international business. In terms of the incorporation and HMRC or accounting registration, that’s all very straightforward. I think the challenges are very much around the UK corporate banking. It’s really hard to get a corporate bank account in the UK. Unfortunately, with compliance the way that it is at the moment, the UK banks’ appetite for non-resident directors or shareholders is quite tricky to navigate.
We do know quite a few fintech banks in the UK that make that considerably easier. Another way to overcome that challenge is having a UK resident office holder physically present in the UK because their ability to open a corporate account for the business would be much more straightforward.
Linda van Tilburg (06:05.228)
You mentioned that you took a construction company over. Do you have other examples of companies that are seeking this route?
Saskia Johnston (06:13.517)
We’ve assisted many companies in the last few years. I’d probably say in the last year, from 2024 up until September, there have probably been 10 to 15 South African businesses that are quite successful in the South African market and have made the decision to expand to the UK market in a range of fields. I have mentioned some, and also data cabling seems to be a skill that South Africans have a lot of, and the UK has very little of.
Linda van Tilburg (06:42.442)
Can you walk us through the steps involved in starting a business in the UK?
Saskia Johnston (06:49.431)
The first step is the incorporation with Companies House. That’s relatively straightforward. We do have a department at Sable that can assist with that kind of logistical setup. Then they need to do statutory registrations with HMRC. So that’s for things like payroll, auto-enrolment, pensions, and that type of thing. They will also need some kind of address, whether that’s a registered office address or a shared address, a UK office holder, or a company secretary, and then a UK bank account. These are the initial logistics that need to be in place. They are all relatively straightforward, except for the bank account, which we’ve spoken about. Once that’s all set up, it’s relatively straightforward to go through the process of registering as a licensed sponsor with the Home Office.
Linda van Tilburg (07:36.120)
So, does this lead to residency or citizenship eventually?
Saskia Johnston (07:41.537)
Yes, it does. So, skilled worker visas in any of the categories that I’ve mentioned allow people to relocate to the UK. You can be in the UK on a skilled worker visa for any period of time, but after five years of being continuously resident in the UK on a skilled worker visa, you may qualify for indefinite leave to remain. This is commonly known as permanent residency, and then a year after that, you would qualify for naturalization. It’s a six-year path to residency.
Linda van Tilburg (08:55.702)
Are South Africans highly sought after in the UK market?
Saskia Johnston (09:02.017)
Very much so. I think in the international sphere, South Africans have a very good reputation in terms of work ethic. The productivity and output that South Africans are able to produce on the international market is considerably higher than in the local markets. About a year ago, we assisted a South African-based bricklaying company. The entrepreneur had already incorporated in the UK and had been running quite successfully for about three years, but he was being held hostage by the local recruitment market. So, we helped him become a licensed sponsor, and then he redeployed some of his South African bricklayers to the UK.
A statistic that he told me I found very interesting: The average UK bricklayer earns about £100,000 per year, while the average South African bricklayer earns about the equivalent of £30,000 per year. The average South African bricklayer lays about a thousand bricks a day, and the average British bricklayer lays about 300 bricks a day. So, you can do the maths, but that just was an example that really stuck in my head in terms of the efficiency that many South Africans are able to produce on the international market, even at the entry-level.
Linda van Tilburg (10:12.406)
Okay, just one more question. Where can I find one of these guys? They sound amazing.
Saskia Johnston (10:21.909)
They’re all in the UK now.
Linda van Tilburg (11:13.122)
Saskia Johnston from Sable International, thank you so much.
Saskia Johnston (11:17.815)
Thank you so much for your time, Linda van Tilburg.
Read also:
- Webinar: Discovering Mauritius’ residency-by-investment program: Flexibility and lifestyle insights
- Mauritius: A prime destination for wealth growth and residency by investment
- Changes to double taxation agreement, residency presence test could be on the horizon – William Louw Sable International
