Scottish businesses are calling for greater devolution of immigration powers to the Scottish Government, new research has revealed, with almost 70% believing that encouraging migration is vital in filling skills shortages across the country.

The latest Understanding Business report from research firm Diffley Partnership found that despite some businesses remaining wary of the impact migration has on local workforces, the vast majority (70%) support the introduction of a ‘Scottish visa’, with three in four businesses (76%) agreeing that sectors with critical shortages should be able to recruit workers from abroad.

Just 17% of businesses opposed the idea of a Scottish visa, but the report found an appetite among most for more information on how such a scheme might work, with Scots firms most concerned about how the government would maintain a balance between bringing in skilled migrant workers and upskilling local talent (37%), as well as protecting opportunities for local workers.

The SNP have long advocated for the creation of a distinct Scottish visa scheme, with SNP MP Pete Wishart telling a meeting of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Committee earlier this year that ‘the simple fact is that Scotland needs more working-age people’, due to falling birth rates and an increasingly elderly population.

However, efforts by the SNP to introduce a Scottish visa have been repeatedly rebuffed by the UK Government, with minister for migration Seema Malhotra telling that same meeting the Labour administration ‘will not be introducing a Scottish visa scheme or devolving control of immigration policy.’

However, figures from the Diffley Partnership study suggest a real need for skilled migrants if Scottish firms are to grow.

For those recruiting, 62% of businesses said that the skill of applicants remains the biggest roadblock in finding suitable talent, up six points compared to the last set of polling, even as almost a third of firms (31%) said they will be looking to increase their workforce size in the near future.

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These recruitment issues are adding to the general atmosphere of pessimism, which shows almost half of Scots businesses (48%) considering economic conditions worse now than a year ago, while two in five believe conditions will continue to deteriorate.

Speaking to the National newspaper, SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said: “For years Scottish businesses have suffered as a result of woeful economic mismanagement, Brexit and harmful anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“We know we face challenges that are different from those facing the UK as a whole. We want to tackle those head on and believe the Scottish Government is best placed to do that.

“I, along with hundreds of Scottish [[business]]es, urge the Labour Government to listen, get out the way of progress and devolve the power to introduce a Scottish visa to Holyrood.”