Theresa May’s adviser on the future of work says the boom in the gig economy could have a significant impact on government finances, with self-employed workers and contractors paying more than £2,000 less a year on average in tax than employees doing equivalent jobs.

Matthew Taylor, the former Downing Street policy expert who the prime minister has appointed to review modern employment practices – including in the fast-growing sector of app-based work for companies such as Uber and Deliveroo – said on Tuesday: “There is no question that the growth of self-employment and incorporation is having a significant impact on our revenues.”

It is not known how many of the UK’s 4.7m self-employed workers are engaged in work that could also be classed as employment, but if only 10% were, that could imply an annual loss to the exchequer of close to £1bn, according to the Guardian’s estimate.

The exchequer does not receive employer national insurance contributions on behalf of self-employed workers.

Taylor’s warning, as the review was formally launched, comes amid growing scrutiny of the employment status of workers in the gig economy. Last month, Uber, a taxi app relying on 40,000 self-employed drivers, lost an employment tribunal case when judges asserted that drivers should be classed as workers. That could mean Uber must pay national insurance contributions, as well as sick pay and paid holiday. Uber is appealing against the ruling.

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, also warned last week of the “structural effect of rapidly rising incorporation and self-employment, which further erodes revenues”.

Writing in the Guardian, Taylor says Britain’s employment system “has weaknesses and is not future-proof”, and adds that the gig economy is only set to grow. He says some retailers are considering adopting Uber-style self-employment models, and are asking whether “they need people employed to work a full shift in our shop and can instead have people on call who come in for an hour or two during busy periods”.

Taylor will report back to Theresa May next year on modern employment practices and says he is concerned about businesses which “impose the expectations and obligations of employees but, by defining workers as self-employed, deny them their due rights”.

Hermes, the parcel delivery giant which uses 10,500 self-employed couriers, is currently facing an HM Revenue and Customs investigation following multiple allegations from couriers that they should be classed as workers or employees rather than contractors. Several have said they are paid less than the national minimum wage.

The government has also announced the first official study of its kind into the scale of the gig economy and the reasons people join it, and appointed three experts to Taylor’s panel. They are Paul Broadbent the chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Greg Marsh, the founder of the web-based homes rental site Onefinestay, and leading employment lawyer Diane Nichol. From January to March the review will take evidence in public hearings across the UK in a tour planned to take in towns and cities including Glasgow, Coventry and Maidstone.



The business minister Margot James said the government recognised the need to be open to innovative working, but said: “It is crucial that workers receive a decent wage and that people working in all sorts of jobs are able to benefit from the right balance of flexibility, rights and protections.”

Taylor also suggested that companies which lost employment tribunals should face automatic investigations to check whether illegal behaviour such as underpayment of the minimum wage or false self-employment were endemic.

“If an employer is found to be paying under the minimum wage on one or more cases, it should be more automatic that we go in and find out if those behaviours are rife in that organisation,” he said.