Best way to live+work in UK, semi-permanently?

"From April 2012, they are proposing not to allow people on work visas to gain permanent residence or citizenship and they will have to return to their home country eventually."

I didn't know about this!  You've got to be kidding me. So literally the only way to stay long-term for non-EU will be marriage? Have they just talked about this or have things already been put into motion?

"From April 2012, they are proposing not to allow people on work visas to gain permanent residence or citizenship and they will have to return to their home country eventually."

I didn't know about this!  You've got to be kidding me. So literally the only way to stay long-term for non-EU will be marriage? Have they just talked about this or have things already been put into motion?

Nothing official has been announced yet, but it's in the proposals. The idea is that only the 'brightest and best', those who will benefit the UK the most, will be allowed to stay in the UK and gain permanent residence/citizenship in the future.

From Damian Green's Feb 2nd speech regarding the upcoming changes (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/speeches/making-immigration-work):

In our other consultation on employment-related settlement, we proposed to break the link between coming to work in the UK and staying on permanently.   We will end the assumption that settlement is an option for all those who come to work.   Instead, we will accord it to the brightest and best.   We took advice from the MAC on how to do this and they recommended using pay as the most appropriate selection criteria.   They suggested a threshold in a salary range of between £31 and £49k a year.    So again the system will become more selective.   

"In our other consultation on employment-related settlement, we proposed to break the link between coming to work in the UK and staying on permanently. We will end the assumption that settlement is an option for all those who come to work.   Instead, we will accord it to the brightest and best. We took advice from the MAC on how to do this and they recommended using pay as the most appropriate selection criteria.  They suggested a threshold in a salary range of between £31 and £49k a year.  So again the system will become more selective. "

I'm a bit confused- so the the threshold salary would be the cut-off of who can work at all, or who can work and make progress towards settlement?

I have personal interest: I'm about to embark on a PhD here and afterwards, I might want to get a position within academia, very likely in this country. I'd probably be able to meet the salary threshold, but would that not matter for long-term settlement with what they are talking about? Or if I consistently made 'x' amount for 'y' years there would still be an option for settlement?

(I know this is all hypothetical right now anyway, I'm just trying to follow what he's implying in his speech.)

(I know this is all hypothetical right now anyway, I'm just trying to follow what he's implying in his speech.)

You won't be able to infer specific implications with reliable precision at the moment.

His generic *intentions* are to shift the focus to a less quantitative measurement than the original coalition mandate.