During the address, King Charles said “My ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing.”

The planning and infrastructure bill plans to tackle constraints on the current planning regime by making changes at local levels and modernising planning committees.

The bill also plans to increase local planning authority capacity to deliver an improved service as well as its decision making and performance capabilities, to “provide a more predictable service to developers and investors.”

For public and social infrastructure, such as social housing, the bill aims to “ensure that compensation paid to landowners is fair but not excessive,” while also opening up more sites for development in an aim to speed up housebuilding and increase the amount of social housing delivered.

The government has also pledged to fund nature recovery and deliver positive environmental outcomes.

Industry professionals have given their say on the Kings Speech.

Phil Hooper, CEO at Close Brothers Property Finance:

“We are pleased that housing delivery is a core focus for this Labour Government.

“The creation of new towns linked to core infrastructure projects across the UK, while welcome, won't provide a short-term solution to the housing crisis. These plans are also likely to be primarily aimed at the larger, listed developers.

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“In order to make more immediate headway in tackling chronic housing shortages, there should be a focus on freeing up land for SME developers who are well placed to build on smaller sites quickly without the need for extensive infrastructure. 
“Please include them in the conversation and let’s really focus on widespread delivery in a sustainable way.”

Tom Lloyd-Jones, chief investment officer at Zenzic Capital:

 “It is positive that planning featured prominently in today’s King’s Speech. It seems local government planning committees will still be the arbiters of decisions but the modernisation of these is contemplated.

“It will be interesting to see whether this will include the introduction of external appointments, such as those with real estate or planning specialisms, to supplement the existing knowledge base and make decision making quicker and better informed, while delivering the increased capacity the government has outlined as a key driver of growth.”

Terry Woodley, MD of development finance at Shawbrook:

"The UK has been in urgent need of solutions to address the housing shortages, and it's good to see this high on the new Government’s agenda.

 "Challenges surrounding a lack of support for first time buyers as well as a failure to ease stringent planning restrictions have led to waning activity levels, and subsequently have caused developers to call on the government to deliver supporting legislation, so it's encouraging that the newly announced planning and infrastructure bill will seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing.

“More than a third of developers (35%) called for a reform to planning processes as a priority in Shawbrook’s recent research so many will be keeping a close eye on exactly how this will be achieved within the new bill.

“Let's hope this is the start of a robust, multi-faceted approach to tackling the housing crisis so that we see real progress in the near future.