Even multimillionaires can’t escape Britain’s cowboy builders, it seems. Last week, residents of One Hyde Park, the UK’s most expensive flats, won a £35m court case against the contractor that built their homes. The high court ordered the construction company Laing O’Rourke to fix defective pipework that was discovered to be causing problems in 2014, only three years after the luxury development was completed.

At the other end of the economy, tens of thousands of families are facing damp and mould issues also caused by botched building works. A National Audit Office investigation revealed in October last year that a staggering 98% of external insulation fitted under the previous government’s home-improvement schemes was installed so ineptly that it will have to be repaired or replaced.

Across the UK, an epidemic of similar stories reveals a brewing crisis in construction quality. New-build houses are regularly beset with shoddy workmanship. In Croydon, an almost brand-new 35-storey tower is already so riddled with mould and leaks that residents are being moved out for major repairs. Barratt Redrow, one of the UK’s largest property developers, recently uncovered £248m of defects across their portfolio.

At every tier of society, the UK seems hamstrung by abysmal construction standards, unable to build anything without catastrophic bodges and eye-watering remediation bills. How did building in Britain get so bad?

“We are the dinosaurs of construction in Europe,” Barbara Jones, a veteran builder with 45 years of experience on construction sites, tells me. “I work with people from lots of different countries and they are........

© The Guardian