Government plans for a new immigration points-based system have come under fire from farmers and carers who fear it could make recruitment of workers for jobs often filled by EU nationals more difficult.

Many soft-fruit producers in Kent rely heavily on seasonal migrant labour for picking fruit and fear the tougher targets set out today by the government could act as a deterrent to EU nationals.

That is despite a government pledge to extend a pilot scheme under which farmers can offer jobs to seasonal workers from abroad even if they fall short of the targets set for would-be migrants.

Toby Williams, chairman of the Kent branch of the National Farmers Union (NFU) said the announcement by the government of a quadrupling of the numbers who could be recruited under the scheme fell short of what would be needed.

“Horticulture is very reliant on seasonal workers and there is a risk that there will not be enough people to do the work. Quadrupling the scheme to 10,000 goes nowhere near what the industry has been asking for, which was 70,000 because there was such a shortfall last year.”

He said there were already signs that farmers were encountering problems: “Uncertainty has a part to play as it has in the last few years with Brexit - we have already seen the impact over a number of seasons.” The challenge of recruiting workers was exacerbated by the improvement in the economies of countries where many had come from.

“It is not about cheap labour, it is about having the people who are willing to do the work, which is very difficult to find from our indigenous workforce.”

He added the high level of employment in the UK added to the challenges and said it was not the case that those working in the farming sector were unskilled.

“I doubt that there are enough unemployed people in the county to cover the vacancies for fruit pickers.

“What our workers do - like harvesting - is not something you can do after just five minutes.”

A survey by the NFU last year revealed how worker shortages meant fruit was left unpicked and estimated that more than 1,000 tonnes of apples had been left to rot - the equivalent of 16 million apples.

Concerns about the new policy were also raised by the care sector, which also voiced its unease.

Nadra Ahmed, of the Medway-based National Care Association, said an increasing number of care home providers were giving up because of the difficulties.

She said: “We need to double what is currently the shortfall [in carers] and we are not able to get them - and we aren’t able to get them from our domestic population.

“Clearly, government are either not listening or closing their eyes to the fact that social care needs to be on that shortage occupation list and there needs to be greater investment in the sector to support the growth of a domestic workforce strategy. Their ideas around social care amount to a leaky bucket and don’t hold up”.

The Home Office set out the new policy which will end the free movement of people from January 2021 and said: "We will replace free movement with the UK’s points-based system to cater for the most highly skilled workers, skilled workers, students and a range of other specialist work routes including routes for global leaders and innovators."

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