In article , Will
Dean wrote:
Is it really the case that building control departments have
to be self-funding in their own right?
Not that I think it's a particularly severe burden, as they've
got a statutory right to demand the money, and the level of
the fees has no particular impact in terms of negative
publicity for anybody. Sounds like an easy way to make a
living, really.

No, because Approved Inspectors can set their own fees and turn
away unprofitable work. A LA has to accept every application sent
to it. When I was a BCO a disproportionate amount of time went
into dealing with small works where the BCO might be the only
person involved who really knew about building, whilst the bigger
jobs (which obviously had a whole team of professionals) needed
much less. Also (though I may be wrong) LA's have to publish
their scale of fees and (officially) stick to it, whilst AI's can
discount for jobs they want (big uncomplicated sheds for
instance)

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