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Housing industry groups lobby against Hips

Friday, 16 March 2007 12:00 AM

The controversy surrounding the implementation of Home Information Packs (Hips) continues as housing industry groups unite in lobbying against them in their current form.

Both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) and the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) have issued statements today voicing their criticisms over some elements of the packs.

"In their current format, Hips will prove to be ineffective and vastly impractical," said Charles Smailes, president of the NAEA.

"After eight years, the Hip we are now left with will serve no useful purpose and certainly will not solve the problems in the home buying and selling process that Hips were supposed to address," commented Jeremy Leaf of Rics.

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) has refuted the industry claims Hips are not up to scratch, dismissing the criticisms as "myths".

It says the impact on the housing market will be "minimal and short lived", and the rolling out of the Hips on June 1st will be done "effectively and efficiently".

"The suggestion that Hips will deter sellers from entering the market because of cost was deemed as 'frankly absurd'.

"The overall cost of a single transaction today runs to over £5,500, and a Hip with an EPC [energy performance certificate] will increase this by less than £200.

"In fact, overall there is likely to be no cost increase to the homeowner as HIPs will help to drive out the cost of failed transactions from the market."

A five-strong group of housing industry stakeholders had written to the government on March 2nd about their "increasing concerns" about Hips and the energy performance certificates that go with them.

As well as Rics and the NAEA, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the Law Society and Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) all said Hips were not able to meet the governments' aims for housing market reforms.

"We believe that the current proposals will not deliver the required outcomes," the group stated in their letter.

They also questioned the decision to make the packs compulsory from June 1st.

"We do not think that June 1st is a sensible date to implement nor do we understand why the Department has selected that date against industry advice on market activity through the year.

"We think there is a risk to the housing market if the government presses on regardless of the serious concerns we have expressed."

The group were "extremely dismayed" that housing minister Yvette Cooper had not agreed to meet them and she did not "appear to acknowledge our genuine and serious concerns".

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