’We’re facing catastrophic uncertainty,’ say sole practitioners
Architects are pleading with the chancellor to stump up more cash to help sole practitioners during the coronavirus outbreak.
One-man bands make up a significant proportion of architecture practices in the UK and yet so far Rishi Sunak has offered them nothing like the assurances he has given their employed colleagues.
One architect said: “Self-employed sole practitioners have seen turnover halve and halve again over the last three years and we’re now facing catastrophic uncertainty.”
Architectural designer Edward Crooks, who also leads a unit at Central St Martins and previously worked at Asif Khan and Hawkins Brown, tweeted: “Please, to the many many self-employed on here who are as worried as I am - pop the Treasury an email today by 5pm. The current response for self-employed, freelance and gig-economy workers has been wildly insufficient.”
RIBA chief executive Alan Vallance said around 22% of RIBA chartered practices were sole practitioners.
“Without a comparable offer of support to those announced for furloughed workers last week, there is a danger that many of these businesses will be at serious risk,” he said.
Trade groups representing self-employed workers have also criticised Rishi Sunak’s rescue package for businesses, announced on Friday, which promised to pay at least 80% of the salaries of employers’ staff but failed to extend the same help to the self-employed.
The chancellor said self-employed workers, who account for 37% of the construction workforce, would be granted £94.25 a week in an equivalent to statutory sick pay, gain access to full universal credit and have their self-assessment payments deferred from July to January.
But following a backlash from trade groups, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Robert Jenrick yesterday said the Treasury would “review” the provisions given to self-employed workers.
It follows comments by chief secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay on Saturday, who said that helping the self-employed would be “operationally difficult”.
Jenrick admitted the package was not “perfect and the chancellor is going to keep reviewing the situation and see if there are further measures we can take”.
Please, to the many many self-employed on here who are as worried as I am - pop the Treasury an email today by 5pm. The current response for self-employed, freelance and gig-economy workers has been wildly insufficient. https://t.co/Pigipsa5fE
— Edward Crooks (@edcrooks) March 23, 2020
The Federation of Small Businesses has been working with the government over the weekend to find a solution. FSB director Craig Beaumont said: “There is hope, so we are asking the self-employed to hang on in there for a little longer.”
It was reported over the weekend that the government may be considering paying grants worth 80% of self-employed workers’ previous average incomes, based on tax returns from the past three years.
A similar scheme has been announced in Norway, while in Germany the government has set aside €50bn in aid for small businesses which can be applied for online.
Self-employed workers in France whose income has dropped to less than 70% year on year because of coronavirus can apply for a €1,500 payment from the government and for their rent, gas and electricity bills to be suspended.
In Spain, self-employed workers are receiving an automatic payment of €660 if they have lost more than 75% of their turnover along with suspension of social security contributions.
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