Government is consulting house-builders and developers to see how their life could be made better by the removal or relaxation of legal duties and regulations.

The new ‘Cutting Red Tape’ review promises to give them a say on ineffective rules and heavy-handed enforcement that stop them building homes.

The ‘evidence gathering’ phase of review will run for eight weeks, closing on 13th January 2016.

The review builds on the work of the Housing Implementation Task Force to explore issues that have the biggest effect on house-builders. The hope is to get views of all those involved in building homes, including developers, planners and trade associations, but particularly smaller building firms.

The key starting points for the review are based on the priorities raised by the Task Force. They are:

• roads and infrastructure rules for new housing developments
• environmental requirements, particularly EU rules such as the Habitats Directive and wider EU environmental permit requirements
• rules that affect utilities (such as electricity, gas and water – as well as broadband infrastructure).

Business secretary Sajid Javid said: “This review will give housebuilders and smaller construction businesses a powerful voice as part of our £10bn deregulation drive. Where rules are too complicated, ineffective or poorly enforced, I want to hear about it and the government will take action. Together we can cut red tape and get Britain building.”