Ok. Perhaps the point I was trying to make (very badly perhaps) was. 

I have rewired lots of properties to the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th. 

A lot of those have not been touched since.

Some have been added/amended  to goodly and some badly.

Those that have not been altered since I did them

Are they now dangerous?

Obviously our consideration of safe has changed over this time but how worried should I be about those I did in previous years?

I have not seen reports of dead bodies littering our streets.

If we are prepared to allow any housing stock in landlord properties to be acceptable for rental if complying with any version of the 18th even if not the latest amd or two then do we still think it might be appropriate to allow to the 17th - 14th? Probably not in normal circumstances because we have become more safety aware.

Put landlords aside.

Is there room to let a minister/parliament to give authority/guidance to allow a relaxation to enable a more rapid response to a dire situation. Rather than have local councils insist on a very recent standard as they would in normal times. What about allowing very slight relaxation in this one case? Ukraine housing. Will put more people off jumping thru additional hoops, make it more rapid and potentially more plentiful with only dropping standards very slightly. How far back are we prepared to go to envisage something once allowed no longer is allowed. Might reduce some reporting of C1, C2 & FI by the over zealous and the downright greedy or incompetant .

Just a thought to help that awful situation a little bit

Well the practical situation is really as it's always been - the legislation is stupidly written, but the government guidance kind of restores the status quo - saying you really only have to fix C1/C2's (and sort out FI's). Which most LA's will go along with, unless they take a dislike to a particular landlord and choose to make their life hard by following the strict letter of the law (which will probably then be overturned on a appeal to the tribunal, who won't dislike them and will allow the government guidance to be persuasive).

So the issue really reverts to the age-old problem of the difference between a C2 and C3, which is largely subjective. Is a lighting circuit without an RCD a C2 or a C3?

Well the practical situation is really as it's always been - the legislation is stupidly written, but the government guidance kind of restores the status quo - saying you really only have to fix C1/C2's (and sort out FI's). Which most LA's will go along with, unless they take a dislike to a particular landlord and choose to make their life hard by following the strict letter of the law (which will probably then be overturned on a appeal to the tribunal, who won't dislike them and will allow the government guidance to be persuasive).

So the issue really reverts to the age-old problem of the difference between a C2 and C3, which is largely subjective. Is a lighting circuit without an RCD a C2 or a C3?