Home Information Pack U-Turn Farce

12.50.51pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 30th May 2007

The following is an open letter from Chris Took, Ashford Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Spokesman, on the botched introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs)

"The government has completely bungled the introduction of the Home Information Pack, which were due to be launched on the 1st June. The Liberal Democrats have long been warning the government that their plans as they stood were unworkable. They had not processed or published the results of their pilot studies or trained enough inspectors for the task.

Just 10 days before their introduction, the government admitted that this was indeed the case. Just 520 of the 2,500 inspectors required had qualified, and their proposals would certainly have damaged the housing market.

The Minister has now announced a confusing, botched way forward for the packs. HIPs will be introduced for four bedroom homes on the 1st August, and she will make further announcements on what should happen for all other homes 'towards the end of the year'.

The chaos surrounding HIPs has had a very serious consequence. It has meant that Energy Performance Certificates will be significantly delayed for the majority of homes, possibly for years. These are urgently needed to make the energy efficiency standard of a home clear to buyers, and to recommend ways of improving the home's rating. Armed with this information, home-buyers will be able to save money on fuel bills and help tackle climate change.

The Liberal Democrats will be demanding that the Government resurrect the Energy Performance Certificates out of the wreckage of HIPs and implement these at the point of sale of all homes as soon as possible."

You can see what the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson said on our behalf when the Minister admitted the delay to the introduction to HIPs by visiting the Liberal Democrat website at http://www.libdems.org.uk/parliament/home-information-packs-project-has-become-a-train-crash-says-stunell.6637.html