Looking at the Commercial Property section of today's Birmingham Post there are two articles which are quite remarkable in the contrast they present.

First is an article by David Green entitled '106 deferments could restart stalled schemes!'

The article points out that Birmingham City Council are trying to help the development industry by deferring the requirements within Section 106 agreements where the developer can show that they cannot meet the Section 106 costs at the present time.

The other is an article written by me entitled 'New Tax burden for industry'. The article is about the recently published HMRC consultative document setting out proposals that will result in a significant additional national insurance burden on the development industry by deeming large numbers of self-employed people to receive employment income.

Efforts by Birmingham City Council to help developers deal with what, in the current downturn, have become onerous Section 106 obligations can only be regarded as constructive and helpful. It is a great pity that HMRC and Government seem hell bent on dealing another hammer blow to an industry in deep recession. They should instead be following Birmingham City Council's excellent lead.

The proposals set out in the consultative document are all the more galling because despite applying Employers Insurance to self-employed workers' earnings they do not plan to treat them as employed for any other purpose. So they will get none of the state benefits that employees get when they lose their job.

Phrases like "having their cake and eating it" come readily to mind.

No one can argue against anti-avoidance measures needed to protect the Exchequer from abuse, but these proposals will go way beyond that and catch many cases of genuine self-employment.

It is vital that the industry speaks with a common voice to ensure, if at all possible, any final legislation is targeted, more narrowly, at the real mischief it is aimed at.

We shall be sending our own response to the consultative document from RSM Bentley Jennison and if anyone would like to respond to this article, I will make sure that your comments are taken into account.