I have been in construction all my life and the manner in which the Bill is laid out is not practical. The Government has made proposals in respect of sectors A, B and C. There is reference to repairing a wall, moving onto the next one and so on. That is specialised work. Specialised work is more expensive. Reference has been made to foundations. The criteria for foundations have completely changed. They are now required to be three times the width of the wall as standard. Standard foundations for a standard house are 1 m wide. We do not want to build something new on top of something old. The criteria for roofing is now completely different, with different weight loads. If a house went on fire tomorrow, it would have to be rebuilt to today's standards, not those of the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s. When we rebuild houses, we build them to today's standards, the same way as we do under insurance regulations which state that if a house goes on fire it has to be built to today's standards. The Bill does not allow for that. Unless we include something for the future, it is a waste of time. I am a block layer. I have been in building all my life. I will be on a site sometime tomorrow to check work. I work with very competent structural engineers on a daily basis. They know what to do, but are not qualified to sign off on a house.

Sentiment score: -0.04