Definition of New Business for NIC Holiday

Director of  a Construction Company which went into liquidation in February starts up new Company in Construction in March.

The construction company in liquidation had a workforce  of 10 plus 3 Directors.

The new company is soley 1 of the directors working on his own plus some occasional subcontract labour, which is a quite different set up to the company in liquidation.

From HMRC's information the new company will not be considered as new, as the new business is carrying on activities e.g. construction work, which were undertaken by the previous company in the 6 months prior to commencement.

By  simply operating in the same sector as the previous company  does this prevent a claim for the NIC holiday?.

The new company's main client was not one of the customers of the company in liquidation and as noted above the new company is a one man band thus method of operation quite different e.g. much smaller scale.