Spec Finish

www.thefis.org 3 Voice of the industry KEEP ON KEEPING ON I ONCE captained a rugby team that lost by over 100 points. We could have played a bit better, but on this and every other day, our opponents had the beating of us. In rugby, once a try is conceded you huddle as a team under the posts to watch someone kick at your goal for an extra couple of points. This provides a moment to reflect and, as captain, to rally the troops. On this day, as we huddled under the posts for the 12th time on a freezing, dank February afternoon, I had pretty much run out of words of encouragement. In our other 11 huddles, we’d gone through the “we have a game on now”, “we just need to wake up and take the game to them”, through the “we can still get back into this game”, way past the “it is about pride in the shirt now boys” and all I had left was “come on heads up, just hang in there for a fewmoreminutes and we can have a drink and forget about today”. I am sure we have all felt a bit like that over the past year, false dawns and new challenges daily with teams having to isolate, work held up, uncertainty in the pipeline and contractual rows, set against home schooling, health scares and a myriad of challenges and tragedies in our own lives. When I sat down to write this, considering some words of encouragement, I was back there under those posts. Frustrating challenges Truth be told, there is some heavy reading in the magazine this month, the immigration system is not going to do us any favours in the short-term – at the time of writing; over 40% of FIS members are experiencing labour shortages as we take stock of which EU workers have returned. The points based system is fundamentally the biggest shake- up of our labour market since we entered the EU. Without doubt, over the past 30 years we have become overly reliant on tapping in to the EU talent pool, with over 40% of the finishes and interiors sector drawn from the EU at the start of 2020. It is inevitable that some of these will drift away and we are just not doing enough and don’t have the infrastructure in place right now to train at the levels we need. Remember training is demand-led, if we don’t do it, they won’t provide it. There is work to be done. That isn’t an accusation, it infuriates me when I hear governments tell me what industry ‘should be doing’ and loading ever more social responsibilities onto hard working businesses, often just trying to stay afloat. What businesses need to do, within the confines of the law and the tax system, is whatever it takes to turn a sustainable profit. With procurement practices and tax laws set against a ready-made availability of EU workers, the strategy was working, but now we do need to change. You’ll also read in this edition about the IR35 rule changes – this is a complex bit of tax law, but will impact many who employ labour only subcontractors. Simplistically, if there is a problem with their tax status, HMRC are coming at you and not them for the back tax. I honestly don’t know as I write this if the Reverse Charge VAT will have landed or not. We are still fighting it, the final throw of the dice being the #StopReverseVAT. To me, it makes even less sense to bring it in than before when delays were justified – cash isn’t exactly flowing and construction activity is even more critical. Now is not the time to get industry to do the job of HMRC when we are also trying to build our way out of a recession with fewer people, less productively and facing often severe disruption on a daily basis! Have faith in yourself But reflecting on my failure as a captain on that day, I realised I’d got it all wrong, what I should have said was “look around you, suck it in and remember, because it will end and you will be stronger”. We’ve got a tough few months ahead of us still, but every day we are closer and every day I am encouraged by the resilience and invention I see in this sector – so keep going, but do stop to look at how well you have done to manage the seemingly impossible this year and take strength from that. IAIN MCILWEE Chief executive Finishes and Interiors Sector Look around you, suck it in and remember, it will end and you will be stronger