Shed firm loses CITB levy case

A shed firm which claimed it is not liable to pay the industry levy has lost its case.

Perth-based Gillies and Mackay Ltd took the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to an employment tribunal in Dundee arguing levy assessments for 2022 and 2023 were invalid.

Its director Cara-Anne Mackay claimed 76 per cent of the firm’s work was “brand-led” in marketing sheds and summer houses, not constructing them.

Mackay claimed that the CITB’s contention that her firm was a construction business was “not supported by law or reality” and that only four of her 22 employees were based in production.

She said the “value of the company is based on the brand” and accused the CITB of “improper reliance on outdated information” based on the firm’s previous products.

In 2021, the firm also manufactured window frames and doors. However, Mackay told the tribunal a decision was made in late 2022 to discontinue these items, and they were withdrawn from the market in 2023.

The tribunal, which was held on 22 October 2025, heard that in October 2022, the firm successfully applied to the CITB for a £2,400 grant to train joiners.

The CITB then imposed the 2022 levy on the firm in 2023 and argued at the tribunal that its levy assessment was correct.

In a judgment published this week, Employment Judge Murdo Macleod dismissed the firm’s appeal.

“This is a business which exists in order to manufacture and erect buildings in gardens of customers who purchase them from them. That is a construction industry activity, and it is the primary function of the business,” he said.

The judge said that the firm’s marketing activites only happen “because the company sells customers garden sheds and similar products”.