WHAT IS PRIVITISATION TO THE TAX PAYER?

I live in social housing in the UK. my family all work.
I should firstly point out that the last government brought in this scheme called - decent homes standard for all social housing [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decent_Homes_Standard]
The maintenance and building work is contracted out to private companies by the Council (landlord). When larger projects come in said company sub contract out the work to other large private companies.
An example would be a £200,000,000 contract to install modern kitchens and bathrooms in and around my city. This might have also included newer, but ironically worse, double glazing
I asked the original planner how the funds break down from £200,000,000 and he explained in basic terms - a kitchen get X amount and a bathroom gets X amount. I should say at this point my City is pretty big and the contract covered the city and close by towns.
The design phase was NIL. The consultations on materials selected was NIL. Any way to customize anything - NIL (even considering the shape of my kitchen which is a really bad shape and size). What about putting cables and sockets in the walls - NO. what about the exposed pipe work - NO.If we supply some nice tiles you will put them on instead - NO.(standard ones they supply are CHEAPEST white square tiles - you know bathroom tiles)
The actual installation was carried out poorly and they had to resolve so many problem's such us ripping up the tiled floor due to its shitiness and paying a contractor to do it - after they had tried to repair it 2 times. huge hole in the wall where they had tried to HAMMER AND CHISEL old plaster RIGHT ON A DOOR FRAME to fit a wire in the wall. IDIOTS.
Basically being only 25 I don't understand what this is. Why is this normal? I could literally do all the installation work myself, hire tools appropriate for the job, customise the design so there is a NET benefit from carrying out the work, and probably employ some small local businesses to carry out more technical work – and all for a lot less than the TAX PAYER is paying.
Why is this normal? Why is the individual treated like this?

obviously i understand all the reasons how this all works and im not really asking why can't i do it - but this is politics and that is just an example of privatization being used as a tool by the wealthy,through investments and contacts to undermine society. This is what i want to focus on. Also i can back up most of what i say if you just ask.

It's normal because the people in charge of government contracts are typical pencil pushers with no technical knowledge of the project they're managing.

When the government puts out a contract to tender is it basically a FREE MONEY sign to cowboys who will promise to do all the work on time for an impossibly low sum. Unsurprisingly these contracts always go massively over budget and take twice as long for a product half as good than if they paid a good company a decent wage for the work. Then we all have to listen to people talk about the evil private sector that can't get anything done because the government chose poorly.

Take the NHS. There is no reason it couldn't have a top end IT solution but, oh look, they gave the contract to the cheapest company instead of consulting real IT engineers who could have immediately spotted the con.

>>1
The root of the problem is political, voters just like politicians who want to spend more, they don't understand the complex issue of spending that money effectively.

When those receiving welfare are still in poverty they don't think "this is the result of incompetence and corruption", they think "this is the result in inadequate spending".

When those paying more in taxes than they receive from the government see billions spent and accomplishing nothing they don't think "this is the result of incompetence and corruption", they think "this is the result of excessive spending".

Politicians are in part responsible for this, obviously those in power don't want anyone to admit they are ordinary humans capable of making mistakes, however while the opposition are quick to criticize other politicians they do not want to criticize the system as this would make them unpopular among their peers and the civil service.

I'm not from the UK (American here), but it seems like the process has become quite bureaucratized over the decades, but shitty materials will be built regardless (unless you find a rare exception on the Internet somewhere), this is true all over the Western world. Use of particleboard instead of real wood treated with element shielding, cheap sheetrock/drywall instead of actual plasterboard or even traditional lath and plaster for walls (which I admit are a pain in the ass to drill into if need be, but are of good quality if done right), ect. These problems extend far past (government) incompetence.

A lot of workers in the trade are also not taught fully anymore, leading to shit results even if you're a home owner paying out a (even decent) contractor, unless of course you know what you're doing yourself, in some cases you'd do a better job.

Even restoration "experts" do a shit job on an old house and are praised for their stupidity and thoughtlessness!