The trouble is they've got rid of the people who understood thse things in councills, and its alll gone to private setups, in charge of people who know all about tendering, and nothing about building and safety. Everything gets dispersed out to subcontractors, who can't be relied on to understand the whole project - and there's no one coordinating it all. And even the fire service has been pared to the bone, which affects their ability to do the preventative stuff.

It's poltical insofar as this is the outcome of an ideology of privatisation and "efficiency savings", but its not really political in a party sense. The older style Tories running local government, for all their faults, would never have done it that way. There's nothing particularly Socialist about a Council acting responsibly.

Remember Harlold Macmillan protesting about Magge Thatcher "selling the family silver"? If it only was just the family silver. It's the furniture, and the front door key.