The House of Lords has made another stand against the implementation of Home Information Packs, with 186 votes against 160 in favour of scrapping the scheme.
Yesterday’s vote in the Lords saw Baroness Hanham urging the House to revoke Hips. She said: “Seldom can a government initiative have gone so spectacularly wrong.
It has been panned by practically all the professional bodies associated with house sales. Despite warnings from this House and the other place on innumerable occasions that the policy was simply not going to work, the Government have, none the less, ploughed on.
Hanham added: “This is the Minister’s opportunity finally to admit that the policy is badly flawed, should be withdrawn and either rethought or abandoned.
We will gladly support the introduction of energy performance certificates as a separate and freshly considered initiative, but home packs must go. I urge the Minister to do everyone a favour—buyers, sellers and professionals—and abandon the packs this afternoon
Home information packs are just another stealth tax.
The cost of selling a home is disgusting,and now the government wants us to pay more.
If the government main concerns with (hips) regarding energy savings, then why not just inforce service certificates on home appliances before seller puts the property on the market.The seller would have to show proof of service certificates to solicitor.
This would insure the buyer, that everything is in working order and efficient.
This would reduce the cost of selling,and the buyer would feel more secure .
By: Ms Mckerral on July 20, 2007
at 2:41 pm
Hi
I think you missed the point about energy certificates, yes they are a complete farce but they were supposed to show how efficient your home is.
Not the appliances in the home..
Brian
By: Hips on July 25, 2007
at 5:10 pm
EPCs will tell you the approximate energy efficiency of a house. If you compare two houses that are otherwise identical you would (presumably) choose the house that was more energy efficient. Over time, therefore, people will chose more efficient houses, and those whose are less efficient will be forced to upgrade them when they want to sell. The average energy efficiency of the country’s housing stock slowly rises. So goes the theory behind EPCs. Unfortunately, the energy spent producing the certificates will probably be more than the energy saved by homeowners upgrading their houses. There are many ways of persuading owners to improve energy efficiency that are more sensible than the EPC. It is ill-thought out and poorly implemented – but its intention is sound. If you are a buyer and want to know whether a home is energy efficient ask a few simple questions when you look at it. You can toss the EPC the seller gives you (which the seller paid for), as it is unlikely to be much help. (If you don’t believe this look at the goverment publications on the EPC and how it is produced.)
By: Simon Evans on July 29, 2007
at 3:48 pm