To understand how a modern builder could be trapped by the state in 1979, we must first go back to the very birth of the British legal system to look at how the law defines justice, power, and accountability.
"Justice should not simply depend upon the will of the person exercising power."
Magna Carta was sealed by King John at Runnymede on 15 June 1215 [en.wikipedia.org]. The circumstances were fundamentally different from modern constitutional government, and most of its original provisions concerned specific grievances and feudal relationships [en.wikipedia.org]. Nevertheless, certain provisions subsequently acquired enduring constitutional significance [en.wikipedia.org].
Clause 39 stated:
"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land."
Clause 40 stated:
"To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice."
The National Archives identifies Magna Carta as an important constitutional document and notes the continuing significance of its principles concerning the rule of law and justice [en.wikipedia.org].
It is important not to overstate the historical connection [en.wikipedia.org]. Magna Carta did not establish the modern tort of negligence [en.wikipedia.org]. It did not establish a modern statutory building-control system. Nor did it establish a general right to compensation from a public authority [en.wikipedia.org].
Its relevance here is more fundamental [en.wikipedia.org]. It represents an early and historically important expression of the principle that governmental authority is subject to law and that justice should not simply depend upon the will of the person exercising power [en.wikipedia.org].
Despite the grand promises of 1215, as the centuries rolled forward into the 17th and 18th centuries, the state quietly began erecting legal barriers to protect its own wallet. The courts developed a feudal legal maxim: "The King can do no wrong."
This principle evolved into Sovereign Immunity. It meant that while a citizen could sue another citizen for a mistake or a broken promise, you could not sue the Crown or the state for financial damages unless the state explicitly passed a law allowing you to do so. The state retained its supreme authority to command, but fiercely shielded itself from paying for its errors.
By the arrival of the early 19th century, a dangerous constitutional asymmetry was firmly established in English common law:
This deep structural asymmetry is the exact mechanism that allowed the government centuries later, starting in November 1979, to effortlessly turn the building regulations framework into an absolute trap for the private builder. By reviving the feudal idea that power carries no financial responsibility, they ensured that when the system failed, the individual would carry 100% of the ruin.