Tory party announces plans to scrap Hips

Monday, 1 October 2007 12:00 AM

The Conservative party today pledged to abolish home information packs (Hips) should they win the next election.

Speaking at the party's conference in Blackpool today, the shadow housing spokesman Grant Shapps promised to abolish Hips as a matter of urgency if the Tory party got back in office.

Hips were introduced for four-bedroom homes on August 1st this year and expanded to cover three-bedroom houses on September 10th.

They presently cover approximately 63 per cent of all housing stock in England and Wales.

However, the proposals have been scorned in some quarters.

"The suggestion a Tory government would scrap home information packs (Hips) is both irresponsible and impractical and is typical of the recent ill-considered and backward looking policy announcements coming from the current Tory leadership," commented Jeff Smith, chief executive of Hip Payment Services (HPS).

"In reality, a Tory government would be unable to bring in any such changes until the courts had heard all of the necessary applications for injunctions, inevitably dragging it through the courts for a number of years with anticipated costs easily exceeding £100 million in compensation alone."

Hips have been attacked as cumbersome, adding an additional cost to what can be an already expensive house buying process. There have also been fears a lack of assessors had hampered the schemes implementation.

However, they are economically beneficial says HPS.

"Scrapping Hips will also endanger the occupations of thousands of people from energy assessors and Home Inspectors to pack providers and all those running HIP related businesses," continued Mr Smith.

"Should Hips get scrapped then all these people will seek compensation and class actions against the government."

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