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Big surprise, eh?

“Unacceptable” delays at a new safety regulator have trapped residents waiting for dangerous flats to be fixed and halted thousands of new homes, according to a House of Lords report.
Bottlenecks at the Building Safety Regulator have pushed up costs for flat owners and put the government in danger of missing its target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029, the industry and regulators committee of cross-party peers said in a report on Thursday.

Regulation means delays. My word.

So, just the basic point again. Economic growth is people doing new things, old things in new ways or even just more of those old things. If we iterpose a layer of bureaucracy whose permission is required to do new things, old things in new ways or even just more of the old then economic growth will be slower.

That’s just how it all works. Doing stuff slower just does mean slower economic growth.

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Grist
Grist
8 months ago

When the regulators’ workers are working from a home which has a garden of half an acre overlooking the Weald and convivial pub just down the road obtaing approval can take a while…

rhoda klapp
rhoda klapp
8 months ago

“put the government in danger of missing its target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029”

The government was never in danger of meeting this target. This is not the only bottleneck.

Boganboy
Boganboy
8 months ago
Reply to  rhoda klapp

The government could halt immigration until it had enough houses to accommodate everyone.

And we Aussies could then copy you!!

M
M
8 months ago
Reply to  Boganboy

If they did that then Labour would never get in ever again. And they know that.

Esteban
Esteban
8 months ago

The default position for any bureaucrat, especially one charged with “safety” is “Whoa there”. If they let anything happen that later causes harm, even if no one could have foreseen it, they are at risk.

We’d still be waiting to use electricity if it was up to them.

Gamecock
Gamecock
8 months ago

Democratic Republic of Britain.

andyf
andyf
8 months ago

Regulation exists so top bureaucrats can command large departments who oversee the minutiae of the regulations. The side effect is a vast stream of income for the legal profession.

Gamecock
Gamecock
8 months ago
Reply to  andyf

Good point. Top bureaucrats prime objective is to grow his kingdom.

Martin Near The M25
Martin Near The M25
8 months ago

Social housing is making things worse. The developers have to increase the size of developments to cover the cost of giving away valuable assets cheap, which means they’re then too big to get past planning rules. One just rejected near me wanted to build 11 story tower blocks.The grand master plan says 7 stories.

john77
john77
8 months ago

“Affordable housing” is just a subsidy to small groups of people, either those who are favoured on ideological grounds by local politicians making grandiose statements or those who have personal friends in the team allocating houses.

jgh
jgh
8 months ago
Reply to  john77

If developers are only building unaffordable housing, then clearly it’s all just sitting there unsold as nobody can afford to buy it.

Last edited 8 months ago by jgh
Bloke in South Dorset
Bloke in South Dorset
8 months ago
Reply to  jgh

jgh, the left claim is that nasty foreigners (i.e. rich ones) buy all the “unaffordable” homes and leave them empty.

Bongo
Bongo
8 months ago

I saw the latest fire death statistics today. “In the year ending December 2024:

  • there were 254 fire-related fatalities” and no deaths from chip pan fires. Both figures a relative all time low, or joint low.

I wonder if deaths from mould and damp now exceed deaths from fire – I doubt the government safety regulator is curious. I hate the government, just never proactive and always getting in the way.

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