Minister's HIPs just aren't hip

20th June 2007

Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers sees nothing but trouble ahead for the ill-starred Home Information Packs.

Anyone who has ever bought or sold a property will know what a nerve-wracking experience it can be.

In an attempt, so they claimed, to simplify and speed up the process, the Government announced it would introduce Home Information Packs (HIPs), from June 1 this year.

These proposals proved to be hugely controversial, and a coalition of Conservative MPs, property market professionals and home-buyers combined to protest about the cost of the packs and the problems they would cause.

For many months, however, housing minister Yvette Cooper ploughed on regardless. Then, just ten days before the packs were due to come into operation, the secretary of state for communities, Ruth Kelly, suddenly announced a U-turn saying that HIPs would not be phased in until August 1, and then only for larger homes.

The implementation of HIPs has been a catalogue of disasters. With HIPs to go ahead for four-bedroom houses from August 1, it seems obvious there will be a sudden shift to marketing them as three bedrooms and a study, to avoid the HIP requirement.

Many people (including constituents who have written to me) have spent thousands of pounds training to be a Home Inspectors, only to find out there will be little or no work with the government's climb down on the range of properties which will need a HIP.

To add to this farce, would you believe it is more expensive to pay for a HIP than it is to pay the fine for not getting a HIP? This alone could cause chaos when local authorities try to enforce them.

HIPs are only going to add cost and complexity to the housing market, causing instability at a time when it is least welcome.

A survey by property firm, fish4homes has exposed widespread confusion over the Government's plans for HIPs.

A survey of 1,000 adults revealed that one in three think a HIP is a new type of hayfever allergy.

Few of Barnet's home owners are likely to be aware they face being fined if they put up a for sale' sign without the HIP pack where one is required - a pack which will cost in the region of £600.

During his ten years as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown has hit homebuyers with an ever-increasing stamp duty burden. Now the government has inflicted the HIPs disaster on those struggling to stay on the property ladder, when rising mortgage rates and falling living standards mean owning your own home is becoming more and more difficult.