Conservative Home Information Pack policy to stall property market?
Grant Shapps has re-iterated his and the Conservative’s plans to scrap Home Information Packs HIPs; yet again over the last few days. However, yet again he has not detailed any planned phase out or replacement of the HIP.
Grant Shapps’s latest statements covered by the man stream media are nothing new and do not detail any plans or future proposals of what he may or may not implement. This continual repetition is becoming slightly tiresome to those genuinely interested in the future of the UK housing market and put the market at real danger of ‘stalling’ and house price instability.
We are at risk that as the election moves closer and without any clear direction being given on this matter that the property market will be negatively impacted upon. With the notion that the Conservatives have promoted ; that Home Information Packs cost sellers more to move (which we disagree with, see Benefits of Home Information Packs for a different view point), how many people will put off placing their property on the market until after the election and what effect will this have?
We have tried to get an answer to what Grant Shapps proposes via numerous routes, including email, letter, comments on the Conservatives blog and even twitter (@grantshapps) but alas have failed. We have of course received appreciated responses in most avenues but without the requested answers. We were maybe slightly politically naive expecting a direct answer to a direct question and are yet to be convinced that Grant Shapps has a full understanding about the industry – Grants Shapps – Strong Foundations or Weak Understanding?.
On reflection, it is not surprising we were not able to get an answer when others such as AHIPP have tried over and over.
Now there is not much to summarise but here it is; Conservatives say they will:
- scrap HIP
- keep EPCs (which they do not have a choice about)
Again, maybe more political naivety, we believe in plain English and would like the following questions answered with this in mind.
Q1. Are you going to replace Home Information Packs with anything else?
Q2. If so, what?
Q3. What are the planned timescales to the answer in Q2?
Q4. How will you manage the scrapping process, timescales and actions?
Of course, we will update you if we do get an adequate response and continue to follow this specific topic with interest. However, it would be so much more interesting if Grant Shapps actually discussed a little of possible future policy.
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