Ministers have rowed back on plans to hike the earning threshold Britons need to bring foreign family members to live in the UK to £38,700.

Instead, the Government has confirmed plans to increase the threshold to £29,000 in the spring.

Home Secretary James Cleverly had announced in early December the increase from £18,600 to £38,700 as part of a package of measures to curb legal migration.

It came after the Office for National Statistics revised its net migration figure – the difference between the number of people arriving in the country and leaving – to put 2022 at a record of 745,000.

But the move attracted criticism as it threatened to tear families apart, with many having their future thrown into doubt as the Government considered the details of the policy.

Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom confirmed the change of plans in answer to a written parliamentary question on Thursday.

The minister said that the current threshold of £18,600 allows 75% of the UK working population to bring their foreign family members into the country to live.

He added that increasing the threshold to £38,700 would limit the same right to 30% of the working population.

Lord Sharpe said: “In spring 2024, we will raise the threshold to £29,000, that is the 25th percentile of earnings for jobs which are eligible for Skilled Worker visas, moving to the 40th percentile (currently £34,500) and finally the 50th percentile (currently £38,700 and the level at which the general skilled worker threshold is set) in the final stage of implementation.”

The minister said the threshold would be “increased in incremental stages to give predictability”.

However, no date for when the threshold would rise beyond £29,000 was given in Lord Sharpe’s answer, nor did one appear in Home Office papers published on Thursday detailing the plans.

The Prime Minister previously told MPs the Government was looking at “transitional arrangements” for changes to the thresholds to make sure they are “fair”.

In a factsheet detailing its plans, the Home Office confirmed that changes to the family visa scheme would only apply to new applicants.

Anyone granted a fiancee visa before the minimum income threshold is raised will also be assessed against the £18,600 requirement when they apply for a family visa, rather than new threshold.

The Home Secretary suggested the plans would still reduce net legal migration by 300,000 people a year.

Mr Cleverly said: “Today, I have provided further detail about how these measures will be applied and when they will be introduced.

“This plan will deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration, with around 300,000 fewer people coming to the UK compared to last year, delivering on our promise to bring the numbers down.”

In a letter to MPs on Thursday, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said the changes would be introduced in a “stepped fashion throughout early 2024”.

He said: “We believe that this strikes the right balance between the immediate need to start reducing net migration and giving those affected adequate time to prepare for upcoming changes.”

The change has angered the Tory right.

European Research Group deputy chairman David Jones told the PA news agency: “The latest net migration figures very starkly showed the extent of the crisis we face. Increasing the threshold was absolutely necessary to address that crisis.

“The Government should have stuck to its guns. Yesterday’s decision was a regrettable sign of weakness, made worse by the fact that Parliament was not sitting and therefore was unable to interrogate ministers on the reasons for the decision.”

Jonathan Gullis, a Conservative former minister and supporter of tighter migration controls, wrote on X: “This decision is deeply disappointing and undermines our efforts.”

Former minister Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said the earnings threshold should rise to £38,700 “quickly” to give people “certainty”.

“If we’re going to £38,700, which seems to be very sensible, then that needs to be done with speed so that people know where they stand,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Liberal Democrats suggested the planned £38,700 threshold had always been “unworkable”.

The party’s home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael added: “This was yet another half-thought through idea to placate the hardliners on their own back benches.

“James Cleverly needs to put down the spade and stop digging. Decisions like this should be made by experts and politicians working together.

“He should also publish the advice from the Treasury and OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) about the impact that his package of changes will have on the economy.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper meanwhile said the change was “more evidence of Tory government chaos on immigration and the economy”.

She added: “On their watch, net migration has trebled as skills shortages have got worse and worse – and they still have no proper plan to link the immigration system to training or workforce planning.

“They failed to consult anyone on their new proposals and took no account of the impact of steep spousal visa changes on families next year, so it’s no surprise they are now rowing back in a rush.”