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Minister's doubts on Hips... but they're here to stay
Pippa Crerar28.10.08
NEW housing minister Margaret Beckett has distanced herself from Home Information Packs by admitting they are not working as well as they should.
Mrs Beckett said she recognised the £350 packs introduced last year to provide key information to home buyers had their limitations.
Industry experts claim Hips have made the housing market crisis worse by adding to cost and bureaucracy for sellers while consumer groups say they are confusing and of little value.
Mrs Beckett is thought to be the first housing minister to express doubts over the effectiveness of the scheme. Her predecessors Caroline Flint and Yvette Cooper were vocal supporters.
However, she ruled out scrapping Hips while giving evidence to the Commons local government select committee, insisting they had some positive impact on the market. "Given all the abuse that Hips suffered I think they've been relatively successful," she told MPs. "But that doesn't mean that they're fulfilling their potential.
"I think that given their limitations they have some degree of beneficial impact but I fully accept that they're not, perhaps, the perfect vehicle we might wish for. I accept they're not working to the potential they could."
The housing minister came under pressure from Tories on the committee, who claimed Hips had made selling a house more expensive and choked in paperwork, to axe the scheme.
Mrs Beckett said: "I don't think there's any point in suspending the scheme. It's not really something that's going to make a big difference as to how the housing market is going."
She said the bulk of the £350 cost went on the energy performance certificate, which sellers are legally required to provide, while the rest would have had to be paid for before anyway.
"There's actually very little saving from getting rid of Hips while there is a bit of a saving from people already having them," she said.
Industry experts claim many sellers are being forced to fork out for more than one pack because the information contained in them is soon rendered out of date by the troubled property market.
Reader views (9)
When Margaret Beckett says that HIPs aren’t fulfilling their potential, she fails to add that the reason for this is because of her predecessors’ decisions to take the major benefits of the HCR out of the HIP as a required document, not to promote/require technological improvements in search procurement and to chicken out on environmental searches being required because the providers can’t agree on a standard format. And a dinosaur attitude in much of the home transfer industry doesn't exactly help either.
- Richard Large, Kingsbridge, UK
The current housing slump has neither helped nor hindered the role of the Home Information Pack. Any clear benefit that might have been obtained has been eliminated by the length of time to sell a property or the scarcity of mortgage finance.Both direct results of the Credit Crunch
The next phase of their development will be the "exchange ready" HIP which will include contracts. planning information and replies to standard enquires plus a full official local authority search ( not the incomplete personal searches which have sprung up exponentially since the introduction of Home Information Packs). These HIPs will cut the times to exchange especially where the Buyer has already a mortgage finance agreed in principle.
The Conservatives are still in the process of compiling information on HIPs. Their current stance is one of hostility towards HIPs.It would be highly unlikely they would seek to scrap a product which although flawed at inception had evolved into something worthwhile and value for money
- Paul Hajek, Chipping Sodbury
They were bought in as the EU wants a form of EPC which is part if the HIP.
Oh and the chacellor likes it as there is VAT on it.
- P I Staker, London
It gives a bit of extra revenue for HMG in the form of VAT. Another stealth tax.
- C.D.C., Shrewsbury
The real reason is £100m in VAT receipts that Gordon Brown anticapates collecting from this fiasco.
The ERP can be purchased for £75 plus VAT.
- Barry, LONDON
HIPS are fatally flawed because they fail to address the problem of gazumping and gazundering, and do not have to include a home condition survey.
Also, Energy Performance Certificates are of dubious value. Few will be deterred from buying a 1930s semi just because it doesn't have cavity walls.
- Martyn, Welling UK
Mark, London
Quite right. Why is that dreadful woman Beckett still about. There's a deeper agenda hidden with this lot. Nothing to do with improving things for the public.
- Alec, West London
Typical Labour. They brought something in and it's not working, but instead of admitting a mistake and scrapping it the public can continue to suffer for their arrogance.
- Mark, London
Against all advice my boss bought a HIP company employing 10 staff for £1 million last year, he folded it 3 months ago as there wasn't enough market movement to keep it viable. It certainly wasn't the first and definitely won't be the last.
- Bob, Cheam
