Richard Harpin

speaker

914 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jan 2026 last heard 12 Jan

Richard Harpin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

James Reed: all about business · 61. The email that saved HomeServe and sparked a £4bn business | Sir Richard Harpin · 12 Jan 2026 podcast

I think the other pieces are we need to sort out our planning system.

So anybody that's looking at getting planning consent for new commercial premises, opening a new restaurant,

That can take now 15 months was an example that I heard this morning when I was in a focus group with mid-size entrepreneurs.

So we've got to get that sorted out.

And then the other one is bringing down energy costs, which can be a big cost for business.

I had a planning application, took a year and a half, and it came back totally approved.

I could have been approved in a week.

So it's interesting, isn't it?

I think of the extra jobs that you could have created in that time to put in that building.

Yeah, so that's really important.

I mean, there's been a lot of talk about doing that.

Do you sense things are actually moving?

I hope so.

We definitely need to get that sorted out.

Yeah, I agree.

Now, the other business venture you have is Growth Partner, which is an investment vehicle, as I understand.

Will you tell me a little bit about that?

Because I think you've, very interestingly, you've invested a lot in retail and high street businesses.

And I want to understand what you see there and why you're doing that.

I started my journey with Growth Partner about 10 years ago and thought, I never want to work in any other business other than HomeServe as chief exec.

Showing 461–480 of 914 · page 24 of 46