Government says streamlining home buying and selling will save transaction-chain businesses £116m a year

The government says streamlining the home buying and selling process will save businesses in the transaction chain £116 million a year, as part of a red tape package announced on 23 October ahead of the following week’s Budget.

HM Treasury’s announcement said the wider package would save businesses almost £800 million a year in administrative and tariff costs, including over £600 million a year in regulatory administration savings and up to £155 million a year from extended import tariff suspensions. It said the measures contribute to the government’s target to cut the administrative burden of regulation on businesses by 25% by the end of the Parliament, which it says will save businesses with employees 280 million hours a year.

The measures

The Treasury announcement lists the following administrative savings, each with the figure the government attached to it:

– streamlining company reporting: up to £290 million a year – reducing duplicative reporting for asset managers: £105 million a year – streamlining the home buying and selling process: £116 million a year for businesses in the transaction chain – corporate reporting reforms: up to £20,000 a year for firms that are part of a wider national group

Other measures include clearer, simpler compliance guidance aimed at small businesses, standardised requirements for public contract bids in sectors such as construction, and streamlined Office for National Statistics business surveys. The government also said it would pause the Companies House profit and loss filing requirement until April 2028 as part of a “Tell Us Once” approach.

On tariffs, the announcement said tariff-free imports on more than 250 products due to expire on 31 December would be extended to December 2028, and suspensions due to expire in June 2027 would be extended by six months, to December 2027. It named chemicals, plastics, hydrogen, automotive and food and drink among the affected sectors. A window for businesses to submit views on tariff suspensions runs from 11 November to 3 February.

The Treasury said full details of individual admin savings measures, including which count towards the 25% target, would be published on GOV.UK on 28 October.

Chancellor John Healey said: “British firms are fed up with form-filling and pointless paperwork that eats into valuable time and money when they simply want to get on with running their businesses.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “It’s not right that pointless bureaucracy gets in the way of people working hard to build something that matters to their high street.” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “A baker should be filling pasties, not forms.”

The home buying element

Property Week reported that the home buying and selling saving follows the government’s reform roadmap and rules from June requiring key information, such as condition, leasehold costs and chain status, to be provided when a property is listed. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers said the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the roadmap on 18 June 2026. It sets out measures including mandatory pre-listing sales packs covering property information, searches and a property condition report, and binding conditional contracts once sales packs are established. It also includes digital logbooks, a code of practice for agents and a framework for sharing property data. The council’s summary of the roadmap gave no fixed implementation dates and no figures for current fall-through rates or costs.

Landmark’s response

Simon Brown, chief executive of Landmark Information Group, welcomed the plans. He said: “The Government’s ambition to save businesses across the property transaction chain £116 million a year, particularly through plans to streamline the homebuying and selling process, is welcome.”

Brown said Landmark’s own research showed that property professionals spend approximately a third of their working day chasing updates and overcoming unnecessary friction in the transaction process. The sample size and method of the research were not disclosed.

He said: “The real test of its homebuying and selling reform roadmap, however, will be whether it delivers meaningful change on the ground, with reliable property information available earlier, better-connected processes and fewer delays and duplicated efforts. Success should ultimately be measured by the time and costs saved for businesses, and the greater certainty delivered to home movers.”

Brown added: “As we look ahead to next week’s Budget, we will continue working with government and industry to help shape reforms that deliver on this ambition.”

Other reaction

Tina McKenzie, National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said of the Companies House change: “Pausing the plans for full profit and loss accounts to be filed at Companies House by the smallest businesses is a huge step in the right direction.” Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the CBI, said: “The test now is delivery.”

The government said it has reported £2 billion of net progress against the 25% target, published in July.