Ask the agencies, not the firms, contractor tells Hewitt

Dear Ms Hewitt

I am writing in response to your comments in Computer Weekly, in which you are quoted as saying "The big fears of a huge exodus of sub-contractors really does not seem to have taken place. I've had literally two firms mention to me that they have lost a couple of sub-contractors as a result. But this is very, very small beer so far."

I am one of the people you refer to as "sub-contractors", and I am one of the thousands who are now working abroad as a direct result of the implementation of IR35. We, and the agencies we work through, are in a better position to comment than "firms" are - and this is why.

Your background in Research at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and at Anderson Consulting will, I am sure, remind you that the answers you get depend not only on what you ask, but who you ask. "Firms" do not know where contractors move on to when their contracts expire. My previous clients neither know nor care where I work now. So far as they are concerned, they "lost" me because my contract was completed, and they do not think in terms of IR35.

But the reason I then went to mainland Europe to help an oil company develop a B2B e-commerce site is because of IR35. These are skills which I could have been using in Britain, to help British companies and to improve the British economy. Instead, since the British Government has introduced a tax regimen which even the British Inland Revenue admits is unfair, I have decided to leave until I can afford to work here again.

You are also quoted as saying: "Almost every other industrialised country has either similar anti-avoidance measures, or is putting them in place now." That may or may not be true. However, a commercial mind views that as an opportunity to create a climate in Britain which would encourage IT development and growth, instead of driving it abroad.

So Ms Hewitt, I recommend that until you can get the hard facts you desire - by which time it will be too late - that you ask the people who can tell you the answers, even if these are answers which you do not want to hear.

Ask the agencies. Ask the Revenue itself. The Revenue should be aware of how many people register as non-resident; and the agencies will tell you how many more contractors are saying "No, I am not interested in that job, because I don't do work in the UK". You may feel that this will not enable you to "assess on the basis of hard facts, and not anecdotal reporting, what the effect has been", but I must point out that when "two firms mention" something - it is pretty anecdotal.

Incidentally - if you wish to communicate with the IT industry in its own language, you may like to know that we are more usually referred to as "contractors" - since we do the work; the agencies simply find us and match our skills to the clients' requirements. "Sub-contractors" makes us sound like builders - which has a delightful irony of its own, since you and the Government cannot deliver on your promises to build the e-economy without us.

Yours sincerely

Ben Warsop