Construction: advertised here, not supplied by us
London is building, and there is more construction work advertised than almost anything else. Construction adverts are welcome on this board and always have been. What we do not do is supply the workers, and this page says why in enough detail that you can check it.
The danger is not on the site
Everybody expects the risk in construction to be scaffolding and falls, and those are real and they are managed by people who know how. The thing that closes small agencies in this sector is tax, and it closes them years after the work was done.
The agency legislation, and the burden of proof
Chapter 7, Part 2, Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, as amended 6 April 2014
What it says. If an agency supplies a worker whose manner of working is subject to supervision, direction or control by anybody, OR TO THE RIGHT OF IT, the agency is the employer for PAYE and owes the tax and the National Insurance.
Why it matters here. On a construction site somebody tells a labourer where to go, when to start and how the job is done. That is supervision, direction or control almost by definition. AND THE ONUS IS ON THE AGENCY TO PRODUCE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS NOT MET, which is the opposite of how a person expects the law to work. HMRC's own test is binary: it is either met or it is not, and no amount of paperwork calling somebody self employed changes the answer.
The Construction Industry Scheme
Finance Act 2004, Part 3, Chapter 3
What it says. Where a worker does construction work under a contract with the AGENCY, the agency is a subcontractor under CIS and the client deducts from what it pays the agency. An unregistered subcontractor is deducted at the higher rate rather than the standard one.
Why it matters here. It is a cash flow problem before it is a compliance problem. Money is taken off the invoice at source while the wages still go out in full on Friday, and an agency that has not planned for that runs out of money while being owed money.
Failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion
Criminal Finances Act 2017, sections 45 and 46
What it says. A CORPORATE CRIMINAL OFFENCE. If somebody associated with the business helps another person evade tax, the company is guilty unless it can show it had reasonable prevention procedures.
Why it matters here. Construction supply chains are long and an agency sits in the middle of one. The defence is procedures written down BEFORE anything happens, not an explanation afterwards.
CDM duties on whoever engages the worker
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
What it says. Anybody who appoints or engages somebody to work on a construction project carries duties about competence, information and site induction.
Why it matters here. A CSCS card is not a legal requirement, it is a site requirement, and the two get confused. The legal duty is to satisfy yourself the person is competent for what you are sending them to do, and a card in a wallet is evidence rather than an answer.
The umbrella route, which is how most of it is done
What it says. A great deal of construction labour is paid through umbrella companies, and from April 2026 the responsibility for PAYE on umbrella arrangements moves up the chain to the agency or the end client.
Why it matters here. We do not use umbrellas at all, which was a decision made for the worker's sake. It happens to remove this entire category of risk as well, and that is worth noticing: the honest answer and the safe answer were the same answer.
Where we stand
WE ARE NOT SUPPLYING CONSTRUCTION LABOUR, and we are saying so on a page rather than quietly not doing it, because somebody will ask.
Adverts for construction jobs are welcome on the board and always have been. Advertising a vacancy and supplying a worker are different businesses with entirely different risk, and only the second one is closed.
What would have to be true first: PAYE only with no self employed route at all, CIS registration in place, written prevention procedures under the Criminal Finances Act, and an accountant who has done construction payroll before. Not one of those is optional and the cheapest is the accountant.
IF SOMEBODY OFFERS TO PAY YOUR LABOURERS SELF EMPLOYED, that is the moment to walk. It is cheaper for everybody right up until HMRC decides the agency was the employer, and then it is the agency that pays the tax, the National Insurance and the penalties, for every worker, going back.
If you already work in construction
Two things worth knowing whoever you work through. Being called self employed does not make you self employed, and if somebody tells you when to turn up, what to do and how to do it, a tribunal or HMRC can decide otherwise however the paperwork reads. And a deduction from your pay is only lawful if the written term was given to you before it happened.
Which of the three employment statuses you are, the paperwork you are owed, and what to do if something is badly wrong. All free, and none of it requires you to work through us.
Why this is published
We could simply not do it and say nothing, which is what a sensible business does with a decision like this. A decision nobody can read is a decision nobody can argue with, and somebody was going to ask. If you think the reasoning is wrong, tell us: the sector is worth a great deal of money and we would rather be corrected than careful for the wrong reason.