CIS agency work is still one of the quickest ways for a self-employed trade in the UK to get on site next week. The catch is that most agencies advertising it don't really place trades. They place labourers and office staff, and they put "construction" on the banner. A handful of agencies do place carpenters, sparks, plumbers and dryliners in volume. Which one you want depends on where you live. Below is the honest list, region by region, how to get on their books, and what the agency keeps from your day rate.
Updated 20 October 2026.
What CIS agency work actually means now
Under the Construction Industry Scheme the contractor paying you takes a deduction and passes it to HMRC. That's 20% if you're registered for CIS, 30% if you're not, and nothing if you hold gross payment status. Not registered? Sort that first. You're giving away an extra 10% for nothing.
This is the part people hate hearing. An agency can't just call everyone CIS. Under the employment intermediary rules, if you're working under supervision, direction or control, the agency has to put you through PAYE or an umbrella company. So a "CIS" job that turns out to mean clocking in, being told what to do hour by hour and using their tools usually isn't CIS once the paperwork lands.
Real CIS agency work tends to look like this. You price or agree a rate for a package, you bring your own tools, and you decide how the work gets done. Ask about this on the first call, not on your first payslip.
The agencies that place trades, region by region
One warning first. Branches open, close and merge all the time. Before you drive anywhere, check the agency's current branch list on its own website and ring the local office.
National: the ones in most towns
- Hays (Construction & Property) has branches across the UK and handles a lot of site management and trade roles on bigger contracts. Register online, then expect a call from a consultant at your nearest branch.
- Randstad CPE is the construction, property and engineering arm of Randstad. It's strong on commercial and infrastructure work. You upload a CV online and it gets routed to a specialist desk.
- Blue Arrow leans towards labour, groundworks and industrial work, with a big branch network. It's good for volume and less good for specialist trades.
The nationals mostly supply main contractors on large projects. Expect long sites, inductions and plenty of compliance.
Scotland
Search Consultancy is based in Glasgow and is one of the best-known names for construction staffing across the central belt. Outside Glasgow and Edinburgh you'll mostly be relying on the nationals' Scottish branches and local independents.
Northern Ireland
Grafton Recruitment has deep roots in Ireland and Northern Ireland and a strong Belfast presence. NI has its own local agency scene, so ask other trades on site which agencies actually pay on time.
North West
Rullion is headquartered in Manchester and works in construction and infrastructure as well as other sectors. Manchester, Liverpool and the towns around them also have a crowd of small independent trade agencies. Some are excellent and some are a man with a phone.
Midlands
Pertemps is a Midlands-based business with a large branch network. Birmingham and the wider West Midlands keep plenty of construction desks busy across the nationals as well.
London and the South East
This is where the volume is, and it's also where the cowboys are. Every national has London desks, and there are dozens of independents covering fit-out, maintenance and resi. The good independents know their site managers by first name. The bad ones disappear when a timesheet goes missing.
Wales, the North East and the South West
These areas are thinner. You're mostly looking at the nationals' local branches plus one or two independents per city. Here direct relationships with local contractors usually beat agencies, because the market is small enough that people remember a good trade.
How to get on an agency's books properly
Almost every agency follows the same steps. If you turn up ready, you jump the queue.
- Register on their website and upload a one-page CV listing your trade, tickets and recent sites. Leave out your life story.
- Get your CSCS card or trade-specific card scanned and ready. No card usually means no site.
- Have your right-to-work documents and your UTR ready.
- Ask straight away how they pay: CIS, umbrella or PAYE. Ask what your take-home looks like under each.
- Ask about the payment cycle, who signs your timesheet, and what happens when a timesheet goes missing.
- Ring the branch two days after you register. Consultants place the trades they've actually spoken to.
What the agency takes - the margin nobody shows you
The agency charges the contractor one rate and pays you a lower one. The gap is their margin. You'll almost never see the charge rate, and nobody's going to tell you what it is.
I'm not against it. I wrote a book called MIDDLEMAN. When I ran my property maintenance company in London, working for housing associations and letting agents, I was the middleman. I won the client, a network of subbies did the work, and I kept the margin in between. A margin is fair when the middleman brings the work and carries the risk.
What I'm against is a trade who doesn't know where he stands. If you're on a long site through an agency, the contractor is paying for you every week through someone else. After a few months it's reasonable to ask whether there's a direct route. Some contracts forbid that for a set period, so read what you signed.
How to make agency work actually pay
- Treat the agency as a pipeline, not a boss. Register with two or three agencies, not ten.
- Keep your own record of every day worked and every deduction. Check it against your CIS statements each month.
- Apply for gross payment status once you meet HMRC's tests. It changes your cash flow completely.
- Use the agency site to meet the people you'd really like to work for direct: site managers, other subbies, the contractor's QS.
Here's the rule I live by. The agency gets you through the gate. Your work on site gets you the next job, so make sure the next job is with someone who'll call you without an agency in the middle.
The other route: working direct with operators
This is where Plan@Job comes in. On Plan@Job, an Operator is the contractor business running the job. It manages the clients, the project delivery, the subcontractors and its own in-house operatives. You, as a subcontractor, are the external business doing the assigned work.
Operators split jobs into internal stages with their own scope, dates and costs, and they decide which stages go to subbies. When they want to share work out, Daniel Reed, the AI Operations Manager, helps send eligible work to their existing vetted network and follows up on quotes and proposed dates. In supported workflows you can price before you're fully vetted. Checks and approval happen at the stage the operator sets.
Two things stay with people. No job is awarded automatically and nobody sets your price for you. You quote, and the operator decides. You won't have an agency charge rate sitting on top of your number either, because your quote goes to the business running the job.
Illustrative example, not a real customer: a self-employed electrician in Leeds is on an agency site three days a week. A local fit-out operator he met on that site runs its jobs on Plan@Job and adds him to its network. When a second-fix stage comes up, he gets the brief, sends his price and a proposed start date, and the operator approves it. That's agency work for the gaps and direct work for the bulk.
You can see how operators run this on the Plan@Job contractors page, and what the AI staff do and don't do on the AI staff page. If you want to talk it through with people building the same thing, Contractor Club is the community for that.
The verdict
Use the agencies listed above for your region to keep the diary full. Get registered properly, know how you're being paid, and keep your own numbers. Then spend every agency site building direct relationships with operators. Long term, the margin should go to you, not to the man with the phone.
FAQ
Can an agency pay me through CIS?
Yes, but only where you're genuinely self-employed and not under supervision, direction or control. If you are, the rules say the agency has to use PAYE or an umbrella. Ask how you'll be paid before you start, not after the first payslip.
What's the CIS deduction on agency work?
It works the same as any other CIS work. It's 20% if you're registered, 30% if you're not, and nothing if you have gross payment status. Register for CIS before your first agency job, or you'll lose the extra 10% on every invoice.
Should I register with every agency in my area?
No. Pick two or three that actually place your trade where you live, and call them regularly. Ten registrations and no calls gets you nothing, while three agencies who know your voice get you on site.