The UK will not introduce visa schemes for any sectors facing staff shortages, sources have told the BBC.
On Sunday, the government set up temporary visa schemes for HGV drivers and poultry workers to limit disruption in the run-up to Christmas.
Staff shortages in areas including hospitality and care have led to calls for a similar relaxation of post-Brexit immigration rules for other sectors.
Kate Nicholls from UK Hospitality warned that without measures such as temporary visas the recovery from the pandemic would “falter”.
She said the sector was helping people into apprenticeships, offering training schemes and noted that wages had risen by 19 per cent over the last five years.
However she said a “chronic shortage of staff is a significant barrier to the hospitality industry’s recovery” and urged the government to consider “all reasonable measures”.
But the BBC has been told the Home Office and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are not discussing the possibility of visas for other sectors.
And one UK government source said: “In order to move to a high-wage, high-skilled economy, businesses should invest in their workforce and improve pay and conditions.”
On Tuesday, the Financial Times published a letter from more than 65 hospitality leaders to the prime minister demanding that immigration requirements for hospitality workers be urgently loosened.
A day later, the chief executive of retailers Next Lord Wolfson said: “Without some relaxation of immigration rules, we are likely to experience some degradation in our service in the run up to Christmas.”
However, the director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, Andrew Opie, has warned that the 5,000 new visas created by the government for HGV drivers would “barely scratch the surface on alleviating the problem”.
He urged the government to “rapidly extend its visa scheme” adding “without action, millions of households over the country will be disappointed this Christmas”.
