Hi All I've just found out from a mate that there are a mass of changes in Planning and Building Regs after 1st Oct 2008. For example, paving over the front garden, putting in a new driveway.
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worries me is that I was totally unaware about these changes until last night. How come the Government has introduced these changes without informing the public (again?)?? Why has this been kept quiet? Looking through some of the other changes involved, it looks like you can't even replace a window in your home (like for like) yourself any more, without involving Building Regs. This is obviously aimed at forcing homeowners to employ "certificated installers" at great expense, even just for very simple jobs. This is very much in the same realm of the fiasco over Part P regs on electrics. You can't even re-render one wall of a house, yourself, without having to apply for Building Regs (you can re-render up to 25% of one wall), otherwise, it's got to be a "registered installer". There are a huge amount of changes involved that, I'm sure, most people are not aware of. Could this be deliberately done so that when people do the work, the local authority then finds out about it and then forces people to apply for retrospective planning permission? Or are these changes more to do with generating huge increases in extra finances for the local authorities through Planning and Building Regs fees? Big Brother has come and gone, but his Bigger Brother has appeared swinging a big stick, and with an incessantly hungry bank account. Brad