Contractors facing bleak future following APN High Court ruling
Contractors who have received an Accelerated Payment Notice (APN) for involvement in tax avoidance schemes may have little choice but to pay up, following a High Court ruling in HMRC’s favour. Graham Webber, director of WTT Consulting, concedes that contractors are short of options due to the comprehensive nature of HMRC’s High Court victory over the scheme promoter, Ingenious that mounted the legal challenge. More...
Contractor agency billings growth at 25 month low, as skills shortages worsen
Contractor agencies are still struggling to make up for worsening skills shortages as the gap between client demand and contractor availability increases, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs. Despite an increase in vacancies, July 2015 saw contractor agency billings dip to its lowest rate of growth in 25 months. Construction has jumped to first place in the contractor demand league table, with engineering in third and accounting/financial in fifth. It is feared that the skills shortages, particularly in the construction sector, could begin to restrict wider economic growth. More...
Self-employed contractor numbers recovering, shows latest ONS data
Self-employed contractor numbers recovered over the second quarter of 2015, according to the latest labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Although figures dropped by around 100,000 year-on-year, numbers recovered substantially from a 17 month low witnessed through March to May 2015. “Considering a large proportion of jobs created in the past five years came from the self-employed community, the Government will be relying on this group to meet its ambition of an extra two million people in the labour market by the end of Parliament,” highlights IPSE chief executive Chris Bryce. More...
Construction contractor prospects boosted by new contract wins
Construction contractor prospects have been boosted by a string of new contract awards within the UK’s commercial property development sector. According to Savills UK Commercial Development Activity Report, although growth in July dropped to 14.3% from 22.2% in June, output is expected to increase as the year progresses. Confidence levels are at their strongest since March 2015. “With optimism continuing to improve, we suspect the slower expansion in activity noted in July will be short-lived,” highlights Simon Collett, head of building and project consultancy at Savills. More...
IT contractor fees growing too high for some clients, shows survey
IT contractors are demanding increasingly higher rates that are becoming too high for many clients to afford. This is according to the latest IT Monitor by Computer People, which attributes the increased IT contractor rates to severe skills shortages. “Despite the decline in the number of roles available, skilled candidates remain scarce, and so the ‘war for talent’ has continued to drive salaries well above the national average,” warns Computer People managing director Roy Dungworth. More...
Contractor prospects continue to improve in Ireland
Contractor prospects in Ireland look increasingly promising, after Morgan McKinley’s Irish Employment Monitor for July 2015 revealed a 33% increase in the number of job opportunities, compared to July 2014, as well as a month on month increase of 16%. IT is proving to be a particularly buoyant sector, with contracting roles increasing alongside the growing number of projects in development. “The professional jobs market in July performed ahead of expectations,” highlights Morgan McKinley Ireland chief operations officer Karen O’Flaherty: “This is in line with strong job creation in 2015 to date and bodes well for the next two quarters of the year.” More...
London legal contractor market boosted by housing boom
New contract availability for legal contractors in London saw a 10% increase in July 2015, compared with the previous month, according to Venn Group’s London Recruitment Index, reported by Staffing Industry Analysts. This has largely been attributed to a boom in the housing market resulting in increased demand for residential conveying locums. The report is in keeping with recent statistics reflecting a buoyant property sector, after the Nationwide Building Society reported a 3.5% increase in house prices, year-on-year. More...
Contractors asked for input over travel and subsistence consultation
Contractors have been asked by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) to provide feedback over proposed Government changes to tax rules for travel and subsistence, via an online policy survey. The proposed changes would mean contractors won’t be able to claim expenses, which IPSE argues would threaten the way in which contractors work: “[The proposed changes would] severely limit their ability to deliver flexible expertise and put them at a huge competitive disadvantage.” More...
Oil and gas contractors looking for work outside the North Sea may zone in on Brazil
Oil and gas contractors struggling to find North Sea contracts and who are considering opportunities abroad may find Brazil is becoming a more attractive destination. This comes after it was revealed that Brazil’s Subsalt Polygon province may contain enough resources to supply the world’s current needs for more than five years. It is estimated that the Polygon field currently contains at least 176bn barrels of undiscovered oil and gas, according to a study by the National Institute of Oil and Gas (INOG) at Rio de Janeiro-State University. “This is a conservative estimate with a high probability of coming true, 90% in fact,” highlights Cleveland Jones of INOG. More...
Contractors and small businesses owed on average £40k in unpaid invoices
Contractors and small business owners in the UK are waiting on an average of £40,857 in unpaid invoices, according to a survey by Tungsten Corporation. What’s worse, around £20,000 of these unpaid fees is overdue. “These figures are a telling reminder of the challenges faced by SMEs in this country,” highlights Richard Hurwitz, CEO at Tungsten. 23% of the companies surveyed said that late payments had put them at risk of insolvency, with the trend proving most severe in the technology sector where almost a third of respondents had had to wait on late payments. More...