Is The HIPs Scheme Worth Saving?
The Government’s humiliating climb-down on Home Information Packs, which were due to come into effect on 1 June, has left the housing market in chaos. The packs – comprising title deeds, details of recent planning decisions, local searches and an Energy Performance Certificate issued by an authorised assessor – are the result of ten years’ work by Labour policy-makers.
Designed to streamline the house-selling process and encourage lower domestic carbon emissions, they could cost the seller between £300 and £600, depending on the size of the home and location.
But the scheme has already been watered down once in a panic decision to remove one significant item, the Home Condition Report, from the bundle. Now a court ruling that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has an apparently arguable claim not to have been properly consulted has forced the minister in charge, Ruth Kelly, to defer the start to 1 August, and then only for houses with four bedrooms or more.
Kelly’s allies have let it be known that her junior, Yvette Cooper was the prime engine behind the packs, while Cooper’s friends point the finger at Kelly – who claims the packs should be operating for all house sales by the end of the year. But, the policy is widely said to be dead in the water, and likely to be dropped by Gordon Brown.
That certainly won’t hurt house sales, but it’s bad news for the 5,700 people who have spent nearly £60m of their own money in training courses to become energy assessors under the scheme, and are now thinking of suing the Government for their losses.
But, the real sadness of the story is that the way people buy homes in England and Wales would clearly benefit from the introduction of certainty early on in the transaction – which is just what HIPs were intended to achieve.
It matters that the home-buying process improves. It’s a good idea to encourage homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient. Neither of these worthwhile aims can now be achieved with the existing policy. It’s time to knock it down and start again.