Good product. Cowboy launch.
We spoke to the man behind Trusted Payments. The product is good. The government launched it with a cowboy hat, sold it the wrong way round, and hasn't answered our questions since.
SiteKiln Blog
Updates, deep dives and short reads from SiteKiln on UK construction pay, tax, safety and rights.
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"We wanted to act quickly." "It's time someone took this on."
The Consumer Protection Minister on BBC Radio 4, and the Prime Minister on Instagram. What the government's cowboy builder scheme actually says about your money, and what changed when new terms arrived on 14 September.
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The pricing mistake is not choosing wrong. It is never saying which one you chose
Day rate, price work or fixed quote, any of the three can be right. Almost every pricing dispute starts because nobody said which one was being used. The four mistakes that cost money, including the one where the word quote binds you whether you wrote it down or not.
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CIS is not a tax. It is a deposit, and you might be owed some of it back
The money taken off your payment is not a tax bill, it is an advance payment against one that has not been worked out yet. What the 20, 30 and 0 per cent rates actually mean, why the higher rate is not a fine, and why the deduction and your real bill were never going to match.
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Why your brick quantities are wrong before anyone lays one
A brick is 215mm. Nothing you price is ever 215mm. Why the coordinating size, not the brick size, decides whether your quote was right, and why this is a quoting mistake rather than a bricklaying one.
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Fire and CO alarms: the rules aren't the same in England, Wales and Scotland
Fire and CO alarm rules differ across England, Wales and Scotland, on placement, interlinking and CO. What the law actually requires, in plain English.
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That tax bill on 31 July? It's not a second bill.
The 31 July tax bill isn't a second bill, it's your second payment on account. What it is, why it catches trades out, and whether you can reduce it.