Will Romanians be given free access to British jobs?

Migrants from Romania and Bulgaria could be given 'opendoor' access to Britain's labour market within months.

Lifting the restrictions on them will be the first issue facing a committee, which begins life today and is supposed to give police and councils a 'voice' in immigration policy.

But the first item on the Migration Impact Forum's agenda will be whether to allow more migrants into the UK, not fewer.

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This is despite comments made by Home Office Minister Liam Byrne who said it was no longer 'good enough' just to listen to businesses - which have benefited enormously from the flood of cheap labour into the UK. He said some communities had been 'unsettled' by the influx and must now be given the chance to 'have their say'.

The Government imposed a 20,000 annual limit on work permits for Romanians and Bulgarians when the countries joined the EU in January.

It followed public alarm that granting them unrestricted access could overwhelm public services already struggling to cope with more than 600,000 arrivals from the eight Eastern European countries including Poland which joined in 2004.

Despite having the option of keeping the limit for two years, ministers have decided it should be reviewed after one.

Business leaders, particularly in agriculture, are sure to demand the lifting of restrictions.

The committee's 14 members, including a chief constable, magistrate and council representatives from places such as Slough, will be asked to produce a report on whether society can cope with any more Romanians and Bulgarians by September.

Ministers will take the final decision before the end of the year.

Once the issue of Romania and Bulgaria is dealt with, the forum will help decide how many non-EU migrants are given work permits each year.

It will consider pressures on housing, employment, education, health and social care, crime and disorder and community cohesion.

The forum will pass its findings to a second panel, called the Migration Advisory Committee.

This will decide roughly how many migrants should be allowed in from outside the EU.

A new points system will be used to hand out work permits - although there will be no fixed upper limit.

Mr Byrne, who will jointly chair today's forum meeting with Communities Minister Phil Woolas, will point to research showing that 48 per cent of people disagree with the statement: 'Immigration is generally good for Britain'.

Only 32 per cent agree, according to a Mori poll.

Tory spokesman Damian Green said of the forum: 'Unless the Government adopts our policy of an explicit annual limit on economic migration, this will be just another example of tough talk not matched by effective action.'