Suzanne Caldwell, the Enterprise Development Manager of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, seems to be a little confused about paying traders in cash.

She is quoted in the latest issue of inCumbria as saying

I think the black economy is generally seen as ok and not really illegal, even though it clearly is. It’s a bit like speeding in that respect. It probably is something that should be addressed. But there are bigger priorities for the government than cracking down on self-employed tradespeople. A lot of these people are very hard-pressed for money at the moment.
Not declaring a job might be the difference between them staying in business or not. Without that job they could be on Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Maybe Suzanne but HMRC don’t agree with you. They’ve just put a Surrey plumber in prison for 12 months for tax evasion.