Next has warned the immigration system is “not working properly” and staff shortages may mean shoppers have to wait longer for Christmas parcels. The retailer’s chief executive, Simon Wolfson, said it was struggling to recruit enough warehouse workers and lorry drivers for the key trading period. “Without the contribution of overseas workers to assist with these peaks, we suspect customer deliveries may take longer to arrive,” he said. The Conservative peer and Brexit supporter said the HGV driver crisis was widely predicted and urged the government to adopt a more pragmatic policy on immigration so as to deal with a “looming skills crisis” in warehouses, restaurants, care homes and seasonal industries. “The system needs to respond more quickly and not wait for crises to emerge,” Wolfson said. “The key is to recognise skills shortages rapidly and respond to them vigorously.” Like other retailers Next has been buffeted by the turmoil in global supply chains with stock levels 12% below two years ago and its homeware and furniture ranges particularly hard hit. The drop also reflected the strength of demand for its products. Over the past eight weeks sales were 20% higher than in 2019 which was before the pandemic disrupted trading. Retailers’ freight costs have rocketed on the back of soaring demand. Next prepaid for the majority of this year’s cargo so the squeeze only affected about 15% of shipments. Nonetheless this had pushed up average selling prices by 2% in the second half of the year with household goods hardest hit. Wolfson said the cost price inflation would continue in the first half of 2022 to average 2.5% with the price tags for fashion and homeware rising 1% and 6% respectively. “We anticipate cost price inflation to rumble on through most of next year, albeit at levels that are not overly worrying,” he said. His comments came as the FTSE 100 reported pre-tax profits of £346.7m for the six months to 31 July, a figure that was 6% higher than two years ago. It upgraded the outlook for profits for a fourth time, predicting they would not hit a five-year high of £800m. The upbeat statement sent its shares up nearly 4% to £83.92. Wolfson said last week’s move to introduce temporary visas for 5,000 EU lorry drivers was “late but welcome”. “I hope that going forward the government looks further into the future and doesn’t wait until the crisis is upon it.” The labour shortages it was experiencing meant it may have to shorten the deadline for next day delivery orders from 11pm to 4pm, “or at worst maybe move to a two-day delivery” in the run up to Christmas, Wolfson said. “I don’t think we’ll get to the point where we say ‘we can’t take any more orders’,” he said. “But it may be that the service levels we provide in that peak period won’t be as sharp as the ones that we provide through the rest of the year.” Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, said the strong sales reflected the fact that the consumer “had more cash on the hip, with higher savings ratios during the pandemic and fewer overseas holidays” among the major contributors. Next was a “tightly run ship” that had responded well to the Covid crisis and was now exceeding pre-pandemic levels of trading, he said.