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Shapps vows to tackle 'alphabet soup' of building standards
26/11/10
Edited by Bob Witham.Housing minister Grant Shapps has pledged to sweep aside the "alphabet soup" of local building standards in order to help developers deliver much-needed residential property.
Speaking to the National House-Building Council (NHBC), the Conservative MP said much of the labyrinthine system is unnecessary "gold plating" that ups builders' costs and can even threaten a project's viability.
He vowed to ditch it in favour of a "simple and transparent menu of costed standards" worked out by a partnership of construction professionals and councils.
Mr. Shapps also used his speech to announce that he has scrapped proposals to introduce tougher building standards for dwellings funded with taxpayers' money or located on government-owned sites.
"There's no good reason why homes built on public land should be built any differently to those of high quality on private land," the minister told the audience.
According to government figures, builders started work on 25,870 new properties between July and September, down nine per cent compared with April to June.
