IT article: How to make housing more affordable, from VAT cuts to planning reform

First of all I think the construction industry has been under regulated by the county councils since the early 90s, we need the return of building inspectors like we had back then but the full cost of this must be borne by the state and the county council's.
Second of all paradoxically we have over regulation that adds enormously to the costs but does not pick up on basic stuff like defective blocks , illegal quarrying and rogue builders because of the ludicrous self regulation regime.
So we have many more costly regulations on fire , low energy compliance, disabled access etc etc much more than the UK and Europe, bit it's a paper based exercise so only applies to the scrupulous developers.
Therefore the cost of renovating older buildings and over the shop accommodation is too costly because the standards are too high. Surely local authority housing standards should be reduced in order that more houses and units be brought back online rather than sitting derelict . The building standards for renovating local authority housing are too high and too expensive, slot of this over the top stuff needs to be removed
 
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