§ 4. Mr. Sydney Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when it is his intention to modernise and rationalise the Building Regulations into a more simplified and national application.
§ Mr. AmeryThe Government accept the need for changes in the law relating to building regulations in England and Wales.
I shall shortly be consulting a wide range of interested bodies with a view to enabling the system of control to be improved and rationalised as soon as practicable.
§ Mr. ChapmanI am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that reply. Would he go a little further and say that there is a need for a new National Building Act which will embrace all the laws and regulations, that in the public interest this should be as simple and as easily understood as possible, and that in the interests of fairness it should not be capable of being interpreted differently by different building inspectors?
§ Mr. AmeryThat is the Government's intention. It is not possible to change the existing position without legislation, and we shall try to make the necessary legislation as simple as we can.
§ Mr. Robert CookeIs my right hon. Friend aware that unimaginative insistence on the letter of the present building regulations has done serious damage to a number of listed buildings in various parts of the country? Will he confirm that planning authorities now have the power to waive the regulations as they apply to listed buildings? Will he give particular attention to this problem when revising the regulations?