Billions of pounds worth of desperately-needed new homes are being delayed by the Building Safety Regulator displaying a classic case of good intentions but bad execution.

The Grenfell tragedy rightly saw demands for better, safer buildings.

But the resulting new regime for high rise buildings has been drawn-up with no practical consideration for how construction actually works.

That’s hardly a surprise when rules are written by civil servants who only talk to trade bodies rather than real construction people for industry input.

The lack of joined-up thinking is mind boggling.

The Government keeps promising to boost house building while the inability of  its own safety regulator to grant Gateway 2 approvals has seen a 14% fall in build-to-rent construction starts.

The other main brake on building is labour shortages while training is still left in the hands of the hopelessly inadequate CITB.

Developers and contractors are left banging their heads on an (unbuilt) brick wall while banks are now shying away from the sector – put off by the regulatory shambles.

The construction industry wants to safely build the new homes the country needs.

It is painfully obvious that the Building Safety Regulator cannot and will not be able to cope with the volume of work created by the new rules.

The Government must think again about the whole approval process or a vital sector of the industry could come to a complete standstill.

If the dunderheads in charge of this mess are serious about finding a solution they should talk to the industry with a proper survey via the Enquirer to find out how they can get out of this regulatory maze.

Sadly they will probably just launch another round of trade body talking shop nodding heads while the industry stalls.