Hudson Contract campaigns for construction clients and communities in 2019

From winning landmark legal judgments to campaigning for construction SMEs and local communities, 2019 has been a busy year for Hudson Contract. Here are some of our highlights:

In March, our freelance model was upheld in a high-profile employment tribunal judgment, reported in The Times, which dismissed claims made by a self-employed surveyor.

In June, we launched a new company, Hudson Freelance, to protect businesses and their self-employed consultants, professionals and technicians against the potentially disastrous fallout from the incoming IR35 tax legislation.

Later in the summer, we achieved another landmark for the benefit of our clients with the award of ISO 9001:2015 accreditation, the ‘gold standard’ status for business competence and performance capability.

In September, Hudson Blue, a specialist company within our group, was included in the London Stock Exchange Group’s 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain report, which recognises the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic SMEs.

Throughout the year, Hudson Contract used its voice to lobby on behalf of our SME clients and highly skilled freelancers in the construction industry.

In an article for the Yorkshire Post, managing director Ian Anfield called for a complete overhaul of the procurement system to support local SMEs and create meaningful employment and training opportunities in communities across the UK.

Hudson followed this up with a call for a revival of local training schemes to prevent young people being let down by the national apprenticeship programme.

In September, we voiced concerns over the domestic reverse VAT charge after our survey showed more than one in 10 SMEs said their cash flow would not be able to cope. HMRC later announced a 12-month delay.

In October, Hudson Freelance partnered with IPSE to help self-employed consultants stay on the right side of IR35 and continue to contract their services to clients without any risk that HMRC will overturn their status and recalculate turnover as employed income.

In Mental Health Awareness Week, Hudson Contract underlined the help and support available to freelance tradespeople by publishing an advert for Lighthouse Club’s Construction Industry Helpline on the back of 28,000 paper tax statements posted to construction workers.

Our apprenticeship scheme, launched by commercial director Lesley Jackson in 2011 to create training opportunities for young people in the seaside towns of Bridlington and Scarborough, sponsored its 147th apprentice.

Finally, Hudson Contract made it into the pages of the Financial Times, the world’s leading business publication, in a special report on innovative entrepreneurs. The FT told how chairman David Jackson originated the market for secure self-employment in the construction industry that so many of our valued clients rely on today.