Rachel Reeves has appointed a labour market expert who has repeatedly called for better pay and conditions in key sectors, such as social care, to reduce the UK\u2019s reliance on migrant workers as her new chief economic adviser.<\/p>\n
Prof Brian Bell, who chairs the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the government, has been announced as the new chief economic adviser in the Treasury \u2013 a senior civil service role.<\/p>\n
He will take up the post just as the UK economy is adjusting to a plunge in net migration, which fell by more than two-thirds, to 204,000, in the year to June 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some economists have predicted a further decline, towards zero net migration \u2013 but Bell rejects that forecast<\/a>, expecting it to bounce back towards 300,000 a year by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n A professor of economics at King\u2019s College London, Bell has used his role on the MAC to make the point that the \u201cskills shortages\u201d bemoaned by UK employers may often reflect the failure to offer good enough terms and conditions to domestic workers.<\/p>\n In its 2024 annual report<\/a>, after Labour came to power, the MAC welcomed the new government\u2019s focus on skills policy as it sought to reduce net migration.<\/p>\n But it also warned: \u201cMany sectors exhibit high levels of immigration not just due to skills shortages but as a result of poor pay and working conditions which cause low engagement from the domestic workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n It added: \u201cThe domestic workforce with relevant skills may be unwilling to supply their labour for the wage and working conditions on offer from employers.\u201d<\/p>\n Bell has also argued stridently for better pay in social care. In an interview with the Guardian in 2023<\/a>, when the Conservatives were still in power, he accused ministers of having \u201cno interest\u201d in the conditions faced by workers in the sector.<\/p>\n \u201cThey may not say it explicitly, but I think they basically believe that care workers should be paid less than people who stack shelves for Aldi \u2013 because that\u2019s what their policy is,\u201d he said, accusing the government of relying on immigration as a \u201ccrutch\u201d.<\/p>\n Bell added: \u201cWe\u2019re not doing anything on the wages front, and until we do that, then we are accepting that exploitation as part of the way that we\u2019re going to pay for social care: and that just seems appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n