Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support small and medium-sized construction businesses facing insolvency as a result of planning delays and late payment practices.

We recognise the impact that late payment has on small and medium-sized businesses including those within the construction industry. This Government will legislate to end the scourge of late payments and will give the UK the strongest legal framework on late payments in the G7. We outlined a set of proposed measures in our Late Payments Consultation, which concluded in October 2025. We will publish our response to the consultation shortly and intend to legislate as soon as parliamentary time allows.