There are around 800,000 self-employed builders and over 100,000 building firms in the UK. The Government argue that at least 300,000 of these builders are falsely self‐employed. They believe that these builders enjoy beneficial tax rates without any of the risks of self employment. They also claim that if every one of these 300,000 falsely self employed builders paid standard tax under PAYE and NICs the Treasury would be £350m better off each year.

The Government want to introduce new legislation to address the perceived problem. Their proposal would supersede general employment case‐law and treat the construction industry differently from any other sector.