Contractors Articles

In the wake of Carillion’s collapse, construction industry chiefs have called for action to tackle bad payment practices.

Mark Castle, chairman of Build UK, spoke to Construction News about the need for “consequences” for bad payers, calling for more transparency to expose the industry’s worst offenders.

“When you have companies that have poor payment practices there has to be consequences for those companies, particularly when it comes to winning work,” he said.

There are troubling signals for contractors in the construction industry as Carillion is forced into liquidation and sector output dips dramatically.

Contributing £90 billion to the economy each year, the construction sector is one of the largest in the UK. It is highly reliant on self-employed workers, with 800,000 of the 2.9 million people working in construction self-employed.

Carillion, the second largest construction company in the UK, went into liquidation on Monday after the company’s banks refused to lend it more money. 

The government’s second Finance Bill has been confirmed, meaning that the tax free dividend allowance will be cut from £5,000 to £2,000 from April 2018.

The cut could cost contractors up to £1,143 a year as the Chancellor continues with his raid on self-employed finances.

The dividend allowance cut was first mentioned in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget speech. Phillip Hammond said: “People should have choices about how they work, but those choices should not be driven primarily by differences in tax treatment.”

In amongst the Britain’s Got Talent audition that the chancellor took part in yesterday were some announcements regarding the economy and some good news for contractors. We won’t repeat his numerous Christmas Cracker jokes but here’s the 5 key takeaways for contractors;