Tories to scrap Hips for 'easier, cheaper' moving
Friday, 7 December 2007 12:00 AM
The Conservatives have restated their pledge to abolish home information packs (Hips) as part of a review of the home buying process.
The Tories believe they can make buying and selling houses cheaper and less stressful and today set out plans for a review of policy.
Housing secretary Grant Shapps said a Conservative government would scrap Hips after the "worst fears" surrounding the packs had already been realised.
Speaking at the launch of the review, Mr Shapps said Hips had introduced "wasteful red tape and up-front costs to the seller with little or no appreciable advantage to the buyer".
The government maintains homeowners are already seeing the benefits of Hips, with people encouraged to improve their home's energy efficiency and therefore save on energy bills.
But the Conservatives said they planned to keep energy performance certificates (EPC) and today's review is meant to find further ways of improving the moving process.
TV personalities Kirstie Allsopp and Owen Inskip are joining the Tory review to advise on the consumer process and housing industry respectively.
Ms Allsopp, presenter of Channel 4's Location, Location, Location, said the current moving process was "mired in pointless bureaucracy and red tape".
Backing Tory plans to scrap Hips, she said: "If anyone says they like Hips I will walk naked across College Green."
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which argues lots of people do in fact like Hips, dismissed the Tory's approach.
A DCLG spokesman said: "All serious commentators recognise that it is wider issues such as interest rates and other economic factors that impact on the housing market.
"An independent report by Europe Economics published recently found no evidence of any impact of Hips on transactions, prices, or mortgages."
The Liberal Democrats also said the Conservatives were missing the point.
Paul Holmes, Lib Dem housing spokesman, said introducing a Hips system complete with a legally binding survey was the "obvious answer" to speeding up the process.
He explained: "This would reduce the expensive and lengthy process where multiple buyers commission searches and surveys only to drop out of the process at a later date as a result of what they belatedly discover.
"What is required is a proper evaluation of the Hips, which could have been of huge value to house buyers, rather than this unsubstantiated Conservative scaremongering."
Newsletter sign up