It is completely normal for new-builds to be rushed as the completion date approaches...the builders are under pressure from the banks...if you study the sales contracts/missives you can easily see how biased the deal is towards the builder...this is not an excuse for crap work, just a reason. Builders charge what is an exorbitant price for what are often pretty crap houses, and there has to be some sympathy for those who work for them because if they don't quote low they don't get the job. That's a sad but unavoidable situation. It would be great to take the view that you will only do the very best job...but if you have no work, you have no income.
However, if you are skilled, you are probably fast too...but if you are that skilled, you shouldn't have to compromise on quality or price...it's just another example of the money-men ruling the roost.
Pre-financial crisis times, so many people bought plots and had kit houses erected, thus having control over the work-flow and quality, whether they did it themselves or had trusted tradesmen on hand to do the work to a good standard. Sadly, post 2008, the banks (again) effectively stopped lending for self-builds. That meant that those who could, with maybe 3 self-builds, get themselves a quality home mortgage free, were no longer able to do so, and, with the pressure on finding a home, fell prey to the poor quality mass-produced housing market...and that trend does not look like ending soon.
What is increasingly worrying is that corners are being cut not just on inessential areas like painting and plastering, but on major areas of safety like electrical installations. I have seen so many examples of dreadful workmanship ( I am not an electrician, as you know, but glaringly obvious practices abound) that it leads me to believe that if an amateur like me can see these problems, they must be very poor indeed. Shiny kitchens and bathrooms sell houses...shoddy electrics can kill.
The powers that be listen to the builders' lobby, not to the consumer...thus we have an erosion of standards...toilets off kitchens without an intervening air space, CUs in cloakrooms mounted high up above the WC, and an insistence on disabled access to every house which often leads to a ludicrous entrance when that type of access should be provided by the builder as and when required, and by the local authority when a second or subsequent owner shows reasonable need...but the local authorities are only interested in garnering more council tax and sell the planning permission for so-called plannng gain which is usually so badly managed that the benefit to the public is next to worthless.
So, as my rant reaches an end (or a pause!) we have banks/LAs/builders all forming a barrier to good workmanship, thus conspiring to produce poor quality homes at inflated prices.
I won't list any more grievances at this time, but just suggest that if the LAs insisted that the mainstream mass house builders had to meet the same quality that they insist retirement home builders like McCarthy and Stone achieve, there might finally be a market for all you quality electricians out there. (They're not faultless either, before you protest!)
Oh, and the screw-slots should be horizontal!