Lords defeat Government on home information packs
The House of Lords has derailed the Government’s plans to introduce compulsory home information packs.
In a vote last night, the Lords passed an amendment by 179 votes to 132 to allow the information packs to continue on a voluntary, rather than compulsory basis.
The Government wants to make it compulsory for house sellers to put together an information pack containing basic data about the property, including structural surveys and reports of any problems with the property. This pack would then be available to all buyers and would remove the necessity for multiple property surveys as well as providing more information for buyers.
However, peers objected to the compulsion in the measure, arguing that the additional costs for the seller are unwelcome and that the Government would be interfering in a functioning market.
The Liberal Democrat housing spokesman in the Lords, Baroness Sally Hamwee, who supported the amendment said it was “a great result for both home sellers and buyers.
“Liberal Democrats have long argued that it is the consumers who must be the focus of any new proposals. The Government is in no position to impose a scheme when it is so far from knowing what can actually be achieved.
“This amendment is a perfect solution as it provides an excellent test for the Government’s proposals without forcing consumers to sign up.”
The Government must now decide whether to press ahead with compulsion, but it is running out of parliamentary time if it wishes to get the Bill through before the Queen’s Speech this month.
Last night though, the Housing Minister Keith Hill insisted that the Government remained on track in its plans to introduce the packs by January 2007, and promised to reintroduce compulsion into the Bill next week in the Commons.
Mr Hill said: “Voluntary packs will simply not work. The industry, especially the lenders, knows this and has made it clear it cannot invest in, or prepare staffing commitments and technology applications for a process where there is no certainty of universal use of Home Information Packs.”
He added: “The present process is embarrassingly slow by international standards and costly when transactions run into the many problems that costs the consumer at least £1 million each day when they fail. The fact is the consumer cannot go on buying and selling through a process that supports wasted costs, offers up continuous delays, uncertainty and stress. The fact is nine out of ten consumers are dissatisfied with the process.”
The Government has been attempting to bring in the packs for a number of years. The scheme was initially piloted in Bristol in 2000, but a Government attempt to bring the packs in before the 2001 general election were defeated. The Government then decided to reintroduce the packs in the 2004 Housing Bill.
