SOME Lake District hoteliers fear they may have to close if the supply of migrant workers from the EU dries up, it has been claimed.

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce says at some Lakes hotels half the workforce are migrants, and there is no pool of local labour to replace them if “stringent restrictions” are imposed after Brexit.

The chamber estimates at least 10,000 EU migrants are working in Cumbria today, mostly in hospitality and food processing.

The vast majority earn less than £30,000 per year, meaning they would only be able to stay for a year under potential new immigration policy post-Brexit, said Julian Whittle, the chamber’s business engagement manager.

“We’ve got a situation where hotels could see the tap turned off,” he said. “If you want to bring in somebody to do a job that pays more than £30,000 a year, fine. If it’s less, they can only stay for a year.

“That’s a problem because if you are working in a biscuit factory, or a bar in a hotel, or housekeeping, you’re nowhere near £30,000.”

Mr Whittle said: “The problem for a lot of tourism businesses here in the Lake District, inside the national park, is there’s not a local labour force they can recruit from.”

He added: “We’ve had businesses saying they could close.”

Ben Berry, of family-run English Lakes Hotels, said 45 per cent of its staff hailed from the EU.

“We’ve got some amazing Polish and Romanian and Czech people that have made their lives here,” said the sales and purchasing director.

“Just to give an example, the general manager at the Wild Boar is Czech. He worked in the bar and is now managing the hotel. His wife is South African and she came across for a year.

“We get this amazing mix and it benefits our business to have people coming from around the world.

“Those that come and work for a year and want to stay longer, we’ll have to help them with visas as we did in the past with people from the Commonwealth countries.”

Cumbria Tourism’s managing director Gill Haigh said the jury was “still out” as to whether people working for up to a year would “fulfil the needs of Cumbria’s visitor economy”.