The Post-Brexit Skills Shortage: How London Venues Are Finding Great Staff

The UK's departure from the European Union removed the automatic right of EU nationals to work in Britain. In hospitality, a sector that had relied on European workers to fill a significant proportion of its roles, this change has had substantial and lasting consequences. Several years on from the end of the Brexit transition period, London operators are still navigating the effects, and the picture is more complex than the initial headlines suggested.

Freedom of movement ended on 31 December 2020. EU nationals who were already resident and working in the UK before this date were able to apply for Settled or Pre-Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme, and the majority did so. Many of these workers remain in the London hospitality workforce and continue to be a vital part of it.

What changed was the pipeline. The steady flow of workers from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Eastern Europe who had previously moved to London for hospitality careers largely stopped. The UK's new points-based immigration system created visa requirements and salary thresholds that made it impractical for many hospitality businesses to sponsor workers for lower and mid-level roles.

The most acute shortages have been felt at the chef and supervisory level. Kitchen roles requiring genuine craft skills, pastry chefs, commis and demi chef de partie, experienced sous chefs, became significantly harder to fill from 2021 onward. Front-of-house shortages, particularly experienced waiters and floor managers with language skills and fine dining backgrounds, followed a similar pattern.

The result has been upward pressure on wages, which is not entirely negative, and a marked increase in the time it takes to fill vacancies. Roles that previously attracted 30 applications in a week now attract fewer, and the candidates who do apply often have less relevant experience than was typical before 2021.

The most effective operators have responded to the new landscape in several ways.

Investing in home-grown talent has become a genuine priority. Partnerships with catering colleges, apprenticeship programmes, and structured trainee pathways are producing results for venues willing to commit the time. A business that identifies and develops promising candidates from the entry level up builds a more resilient workforce than one that relies on experienced hires arriving ready-made.

Retention has taken on greater strategic importance. When the pool of available candidates is smaller, every departure is more costly and harder to address. The venues investing in culture, progression, and working conditions are, in practice, competing more effectively for the available talent pool.

Some operators have pursued skilled worker visas for specialist roles, particularly head chefs and pastry specialists, where the salary threshold and the difficulty of finding the right skills domestically justify the cost and administrative effort. This route is not viable for all roles, but for genuinely specialist positions it remains an option worth exploring with the support of an immigration adviser.

One consequence of reduced EU migration is that domestic candidates are being considered more seriously for roles they might previously have been passed over for. British hospitality talent, which was sometimes overlooked in favour of European applicants with multilingual skills or international training, is now front of mind. This shift is not without its challenges, but it has opened doors for capable domestic candidates who had previously found the sector difficult to break into at a senior level.

Working with a specialist recruitment partner who has an active domestic candidate network, rather than relying solely on job boards, makes a tangible difference in the current market. The best candidates are rarely actively searching; they are known to and trusted by the recruiters who work their specific patch consistently.