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42 Spring 2022 L abour shortages and the increasing cost of materials plagued the construction industry during a problematic pandemic period, but the latest Construction Purchasing Managers Index, published earlier this year, revealed that the sector saw its fastest rate of growth in eight months during February. is has been largely attributed to the lifting of Plan B restrictions in their entirety as well as a buoyant housing market, with residential construction now outperforming the commercial sector. However, with construction workers one of the rst back to work to fuel the pandemic property market boom, tax refund experts, RIFT Tax Refunds, have revealed how they are also some of the most likely to be owed money by HMRC. It’s estimated that one in three of us are actually owed money by HMRC, that’s almost 11 million people across the nation. However, RIFT’s research shows that the proportion of us owed a tax refund is far higher when it comes to those in full- time employment across the construction industry - as high as 83%. Of the 1.39m people employed full- time across British construction, RIFT estimates that just over 1.15m could be owed a tax refund. With the average one-year claim sitting at £1,244 per person, that’s just shy of a staggering £1.44bn owed to those who kept Britain building during one of the most di cult periods in recent history. Both the South East (£216.3m) and London (£216.1m) are thought to be home to the largest levels of tax owed to construction workers, while the East of England (£177.5m), the North West (£168.8m) and Scotland (£124.8m) could also see some of the highest sums refunded to workers in the sector. Even in the North East where the level of tax owed to construction workers is estimated to be at its lowest, RIFT still estimates that they could be eligible to claim as much as £44.4m. ‘PRESSURE TO MEET UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND’ CEO of RIFT Tax Refunds, Bradley Post, said: “It’s fair to say that the pandemic has been extremely challenging for a number of sectors but the construction industry has weathered a particularly erce storm, having already su ered from a shortage in labour and a sharp increase in the cost of materials following Brexit. £1.4BN OWED TO BRITAIN’S CONSTRUCTION WORKERS FOLLOWING MARKET BOOM Construction PMI spotlights tax refunds and labour shortages. Joe Sullivan Bradley Post Dev Amratia