April 2000 saw John Prescott make an announcement that changed the face of the housing industry. A green paper entitled “Quality and Choice: A Decent Home for All” was introduced. The paper is the largest review the housing industry has seen in over a quarter of a century, and has the ultimate aim of ensuring that everyone is entitled to a decent home and standard of living.

Met Consulting Engineers and Met Surveys provide a support service, and work in partnership with local authorities and contractors, to ensure that homes meet the required standard set out by the government.

Met's Decent Homes division has created a bespoke software solution to simplify the collection, processing and dissemination of data. The solution has been designed to capture information on site using the latest handheld technologies, which allows the surveyor to pick up and record as much or as little information as required by the client.

Met investigate the findings from the Decent Homes Condition Surveys, carried out by third parties (and parent company Met Surveys Ltd) ranging from preliminary visual structural appraisals to full intrusive investigations.

Most structural problems manifest themselves in the form of undue movement, leading to cracking and bulging. Based upon the type of movement a hypothosis of cause is made and the investigation is tailored to suit the structural fault suspected.

Once all necessary investigations and appraisals have taken place, a report is provided to the contractor/authority describing the appropriate remedial measures necessary to meet the Decent Homes Standard. This could be as simple as removing/repairing walls, to major structural and foundation issues. If required, the report can also detail all remedial works and specifications for the contractor.