HIPs rethink a wasted opportunity

Anne Main has today criticised the Government's proposed reforms to the Home Information Packs as a wasted opportunity.

Anne Main has today criticised the Government's proposed reforms to the Home Information Packs as a wasted opportunity.

The changes, announced in a Written Ministerial Statement yesterday, will now see the packs having to be accompanied by a compulsory six-page questionnaire. The previous allowance of 28 days' leeway from when a house goes on sale will also be removed, and a pack will now have to be submitted on the very first day a house goes on the market.

Anne said:

"It is clear that, following pressure on the Ministers over the packs at committee, a rethink has been rushed out by the Government. However, these tweaks offer no worthwhile changes and they are certainly not the 'overhaul' of the failing HIPs project that many would have liked to have seen. Indeed, they appear to place even more burden on those looking to sell their homes.

In the struggling housing market I really think it is time for the Government to call quits on Home Information Packs. Nobody wants the packs and they are simply an extra piece of bureaucracy in a home buying and selling process which is already a minefield.

The St Albans property market would have welcomed the removing of this extra bureaucracy. In our city as much as anywhere buyers, sellers and estate agents need help to kick-start the market and this could be the help they need. This is a wasted opportunity and Home Information Packs should be scrapped.""