December 2009

Here’s what’s been hitting the headlines over recent weeks:

FEATURE ARTICLE

Trade Associations to fight crackdown on self-employment: A number of major trade associations have formed a partnership to fight against the Governments announcement to tackle what it sees as bogus self employment in the construction industry. MORE...

NEWS ROUND-UP

OFT faces new battles over fines: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has another costly legal battle on its hands after 25 construction companies decided to contest the penalties that had been imposed on them by the regulator. MORE...

National Insurance contributions increase will hit employment: The accountancy firm Kingston Smith have said that employment figures in the UK are likely to suffer as a result of the planned increases in National Insurance Contributions. MORE...

First building on Olympics 2012 site completed: The first building on the 2012 Olympic Park is now complete. The building is the primary electrical substation in King’s Yard in the west part of the park. MORE...

HMRC gets tough on late payments: HMRC’s position on time-to-pay has hardened since the summer and it now appears that they have adopted a strategy of prevention to make the escalation of late VAT and PAYE/NI much more difficult in the future. MORE...

Unions urge MPs to tighten blacklisting plans: Unions are planning to urge MPs to strengthen new blacklisting regulations, which have been described by one legal expert as ‘disgraceful’. MORE...

Construction industry moves out of recession: According to preliminary statistics from the Government, the construction industry has come out of the recession largely due to a boost in public sector work. MORE...

Mayor praises Olympics transport: The London Mayor Boris Johnson has described the speed with which transport works in preparation for the 2012 Olympics are taking place as “sensational”. MORE...

Payroll fraud: The UK’s Fraud Prevention Service CIFAS has recently published its report ‘Employee Fraud – the Enemy Within’ which revealed that out of 127 companies surveyed all but 2 had been affected by employee fraud. MORE...

Government announces new infrastructure body: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that a new body called Infrastructure UK is to be created to provide advice to the government on its national infrastructure programmes for the next 50 years. MORE...

Surprise Crossrail bidder emerges: Rival bidders for the major tunnelling packages on the Crossrail project were taken by surprise when a fifth consortium emerged to bid for the contracts. MORE...

HSE to review tower crane register: The Health and Safety Executive has said that it will be reviewing the tower crane register in April, a mere twelve months after it was implemented. MORE...

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