The government has committed to reforming planning laws, investing in infrastructure and improving building safety, all laid out in the Queen’s Speech last week. 

The speech also made reference to the ongoing overhaul of the Building Regulations system in the UK, which the Queen said would “ensure the tragedies of the past are never repeated”. 

However, Ben Dyer, CEO at Powered Now - a field service management software firm that works with over 1,500 SMEs in the trades -  says that he expects Help to Build to be a failure. 

He said: “It is promising to see the government seek to radically simplify the planning process. At the moment it takes far too long for planning to get through the system, with it broadly working the same way for small developments as larger projects, which in turn is hugely disproportionate.  

“We would hope to see the introduction of a simple rules based approach rather than the decision of a committee, therefore resulting in a faster decision and appeal process. Currently around a third of planning cases that go to appeal are overturned, making this a ridiculous process that is both often hugely expensive and time consuming.” 

“We believe it should be a requirement that all county councils should have a clear housing and development policy. This will increase the transparency on what can, and can't be built and will save a lot of time, effort and money.”