In June the Government announced a new bespoke concierge service for UK businesses of the future to start, scale and stay in the UK. This is part of the Business Secretary’s quest to ‘nurture the UK’s first trillion-dollar firm’.

As ever, the devil will be in the detail, and we await further information as to how the schemes will operate in practice. Whilst the visa fees’ reimbursement scheme will no doubt be welcome to businesses, the fees are limited by the level of funding made available by the Government and per international hire and their dependants. The level per hire is unlikely to cover the actual immigration fees associated with the hire and their dependants.

The key elements are stated to be as follows:

  1. A new agile and rapid support offer that will work with firms ready to scale and grow alongside strengthened measures to attract and retain world-leading talent through the Global Talent Taskforce.
  2. A new bespoke concierge service offering tiered support that will accelerate the most promising scale-ups and build a pipeline of high-growth firms ready to break through. It will provide targeted support to tackle issues facing promising firms in the country to unlock growth, create jobs and opportunities. The Government’s press release states that the service ‘will develop and be built as it progresses with input from entrepreneurs and investors’.
  3. Where there are challenges including regulation, access to finance, procurement or access to global talent, the concierge service will ensure that Government acts quickly to support the highest potential firms and where necessary and appropriate, get those challenges out of the way.
  4. There will be a new visa fees’ reimbursement scheme to help high potential firms hire the best talent from outside the UK. The Visa Fees’ Reimbursement Scheme for scale ups will provide financial support to UK based scale ups operating in clean energy, life sciences and digital and technology sectors. Business can apply for funding up to £25,000/year with a maximum award of £5,000 for each international hire and their dependants. The funding available is limited and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and grants will be awarded until the total budget is fully allocated. The scheme will reimburse eligible visa fees incurred on or after 9 June 2026 and claims are through the grants’ hub portal of the Department for Business and Trade.

Office for Investment (OfI) fast track referral for a UK Expansion Worker Sponsor licence

Businesses that are receiving ongoing support from OfI may be able to get a faster decision on their UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence from the Home Office. The expansion worker route is for overseas businesses who fulfil specific detailed criteria and who want to expand their business into the UK. If an application is accepted for fast track, it could be processed in around 10 working days instead of the standard eight weeks. Applications referred by the OfI for fast-tracking that are later identified by the Home Office as complex will not be processed within 10 working days and will be subject to standard timelines.

To be eligible businesses must be receiving ongoing support from the OfI, be operating in one of the eight sectors identified as a priority under the UK Modern Industrial Strategy and meet at least one of the following growth criteria:

  1. Has received at least £1 million venture capital or institutional investment.
  2. Has committed at least £2 million capital investment for UK expansion.
  3. Is part of a Government-recognised, high-growth programme such as the Global Entrepreneur Programme.

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