When Help-to-Buy was introduced in England last April, we saw a strong upswing in business on the other side of the bridge.

In fact, that trend continued until the end of the year and was partly responsible for November 2013 being one of our strongest months to date.

With Help-to-Buy now operating in England and Wales, we’re actually forecasting that 2014 will be a particularly good year for ourselves and the wider construction sector. Certainly it seems that house prices are going up across the board, which is a good sign.

From the start of the scheme, £170m has been made available to fund the project in Wales and hopefully, it will be money well spent. The ultimate goal is to support the purchase of 5,000 homes in Wales in the next 2.5 years. Given that in England, 5,375 homes were bought in the first six months of the scheme alone, this seems feasible.

In order to be a success, the scheme needs to grab the attention of the public – if they’re not engaged and keen to buy the homes being built, the whole thing will stall.

Ultimately, the scheme is to help people get onto the property ladder so developers need to be savvy. Houses above a certain price might net them more income, but will people buy them on the scheme?

Chances are if someone can afford a mortgage on a £250,000 property, they aren’t going to need help with their deposit.

Government-funded projects often have an impact on our sector, a good example is this year’s Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

We’ve been called in to work on a number of buildings which are integral to the games, such as the aquatic centre, and that has been vital in keeping our income up even though the housing market has been flat.

However, one of the main lessons of the last few years is that businesses can’t rest on their laurels and wait for the government to come up with ways of helping them - they need to think creatively.

That is certainly what we’ve tried to do and it is one of the reasons we have diversified into cosmetic repair. As the last contractor on site, it makes sense for us to offer a complete package and it seems to be going well so far.

The issue that I, and others working in construction, may face is a skills gap. Following the downturn of the sector and a large number of layoffs, there simply isn’t the calibre of staff there once was. Combined with a drop in apprenticeships, we just aren’t seeing the high standard of staff we used to.

We’re aiming to address this issue with a number of comprehensive training programmes and we’re hopeful that this will mean our growth will be more sustainable because we’ll have skilled staff who can work to our exacting specifications.

Ultimately, the last few years have been particularly tough for everyone working in the housing sector, and the wider construction industry but Help-to-Buy will hopefully have the same impact in Wales that it did in England.