Budget bad deal for builders

Construction union UCATT has warned that Alistair Darling’s budget has done nothing to curb the casualisation and insecurity plaguing construction workers and the construction industry.

Despite the industries stand alone tax scheme the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) costing the exchequer in the region of £5 billion in lost tax and national insurance contributions, through rampant bogus self-employment, the Chancellor failed to announce the closure or even a review of the scheme.

In excess of a million construction workers are bogusly self-employed through CIS, meaning that they can be sacked at a moment’s notice and cannot save for their retirement or plan their futures. This casualisation means that the Government has to pay excessive costs in benefits, if builders become ill or are too old to work

Despite the Chancellor again indicating the Government’s commitment to encourage apprenticeships for young people, his failure to reform the CIS means that this will not happen in construction. Companies using bogus self-employed workers rather than directly employing their own workforce do not train workers. The failure to train sufficient construction workers has led to an ever-widening skills gap, currently being plugged by migrant workers.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “The Chancellor has missed a clear opportunity to sound the death knell on the CIS tax scheme which is corrupting and distorting British industry and costing the economy billions.”

In further grim news for construction safety the Chancellor announced that the John Hutton the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, would be asked to draw up measures to limit how much regulation departments could introduce.

Given Mr Hutton’s strong pro-business leanings it is feared that this will be used to reduce companies health and safety obligations. Seventy-seven construction workers were killed in 2006/7; any reduction in health and safety obligations could increase the death toll.

Mr Ritchie, added: “The Government is heading in the wrong direction. Sensible regulations create stability and a safe working environment. My members shouldn’t be forced to dice with death to satisfy the whims of fat cat businessmen who are most at danger of injury when they pick up their grotesquely large bonuses.”