Proposals that could have forced many of Britain’s labour-only subbies out of business are heading for the scrapheap – and the news has been welcomed by Freelance Builders, the online network that speaks for the construction industry’s half-million-strong self-employed workforce.

A Westminster roundtable on the critical importance of freelancers for the UK economy heard that the Revenue is expecting HM Treasury to drop the unpopular ‘deeming proposals’ from a 2009 consultation paper that was intended to tackle bogus self-employment in construction.

“The whole plan was deeply flawed from the outset,” said Freelance Builders spokesman David Simpson.  “In effect, it would have forced legitimate tradespeople out of work.  Rather than curbing false self-employment, it would merely have boosted the black economy. 

“The catch-all legislation would have meant additional costs and red-tape for business owners, whilst reducing the pay and living standards of hundreds of thousands of workers, and strangled the recovery of the UK construction sector.  So it is good to hear that common sense has finally prevailed.”

The Freelance Builder movement was part of a sector-wide coalition that opposed the Treasury proposals, mounting the Stop The Unfair Building Tax campaign with organisations that also included Barratt, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, and the Home Builders Federation.