New residency policy rules could ‘hamper economy’, GSD says

The GSD has said the newly introduced residency policy, which sets out an age gap and earnings threshold, will likely have an “adverse effect” against British people seeking to relocate to or invest in Gibraltar.

The Government last week introduced a new residency policy age cap at 55 and a minimum earnings requirement of £37,500. The rules do not apply to Gibraltarian who are not presently resident in Gibraltar and wish to return.

The GSD said the policy will push people looking for residency for new jobs, job creation itself and spending to Spain.

“It can hamper business, growth in the economy and diminish the traditional Britishness of sources of investment or employment,” the GSD said.

“It is evident that the policy will likely have the most significant impact on British people and other valuable non-EU sources of labour for key sectors of the economy.”

“It is unlikely for example that Spanish workers would seek to live in Gibraltar in similar numbers.”

“Traditionally the success of our economy and growth has been dependent on the ability to develop and diversify business as well as attract inward investment and labour in a less restrained way.”

The GSD said it makes sense for there to be clear criteria but there are aspects of the residency rules such as the salary minimum that may affect inward investment and job creation in certain sectors of the economy.

The party said that salary minimum is not reflective of the average in the private sector or the pay of some key public or private sector jobs which is below the overall average “as is obvious from the Employment Survey 2024.”

“It does not make sense to hamper growth in areas when our public services are dependent on external labour or tax revenue from a number of successful pillars of the economy,” the GSD said.

“This has always been driven by the needs of the economy and unless there is very good reason to prevent that this practice should remain.”

“The use of populist language in the past by Government about ‘freeloaders’ has been nothing more than headline seeking vacuous labels which are disrespectful to many people who have contributed to our economy for many years.”

The party said the mechanisms that protect public services while not hindering the expansion and prosperity of the economy can be achieved.

They added that given the absence of information and statistics from the Government “it is impossible to be persuaded for now of the proposed longer eligibility criteria to apply for Gibraltarian status for new applicants.”

“What we have had so far from Government are unsubstantiated statements but the meeting promised to the Opposition in November 2025 to discuss our concerns on the draft Gibraltarian Status & Immigration Bill has still not taken place.”

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said that if in Government the GSD would seek to ensure that residency policies operate to legitimately protect the public services and do not diminish the importance of links to Britain, hamper business growth or give primacy to foreign non-British workers.

“All in all it is obvious that there are issues of concern not properly dealt with in this policy and we are not convinced that it will be effective and may, in fact, undermine our economy in favour of Spanish workers or push labour to live in Spain when we clearly have no control of whether Spain will give the requisite permits to non-EU (British) workers,” he said.
“This just further increases the handle that Spain will have on our economy because more workers will be forced to reside there or be dependent on obtaining Spanish residence permissions to work here.”