Commercial properties ''disadvantaged'' by red tape - commercial mortgages

11 June 2007

The construction industry is being disadvantaged by continually changing rules and regulations, an industry group has advised, adding that a dedicated government department should be created for regulating such changes.

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has said that smaller firms find it especially difficult as they struggle to keep up with the burden of regulation.

As a result, firms with commercial mortgages may be unwittingly breaking building regulations.

"We''re forever struggling with more and more regulations… I think a lot of them are red tape. Clearly building regulations have good intentions; but the difficulty is keeping pace with them, and enforcing them - because there aren''t enough resources inside the industry to make enforcement comprehensive," advised CIC operations director and registrar Richard Biggs.

"We hope that construction is going to get a better deal from Government when Gordon Brown gets into office. There''s talk of reshuffling departments. At the moment the construction portfolio is with DTI… We''ve been pushing for a dedicated department for construction," Mr Biggs added.