I am assuming he (or his Dad) bought the public housing project house (”Council House”) from the government at some point? Sounds like “The Council” is fixing some of his neighbors’ houses for “free” (taxpayer $$). He probably should have had an pro inspection done before buying an old “govt. built/low bid contractor” house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_house
A building inspector wouldn’t be willing to “condemn” a whole class of British public housing (until now). He would have lost his license.