20
May
Home Information Packs (HIPS) scrapped
From The Times Online - Thursday May 20th Home Information Packs
(HIPs) are to be scrapped with immediate effect, the coalition
Government announced today The unpopular packs — which
contained information required before a seller could put their home
on the market — was “pointless red-tape” that was
“strangling the housing market”, the Housing Minister
Grant Shapps said. He was joined at a presentation by the
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, the television presenter
Kirstie Allsopp and Philip Bullman, from the National Association
of Estate Agents. A clause in the Housing Act 2004 allows the
Government to suspend HIPs immediately, although primary
legislation is pending. HIPs were brought into effect in August
2007 in England and Wales for properties with four or more
bedrooms, before being gradually introduced across the rest of the
market. Homeowners and campaigners criticised the Labour policy,
claiming that it had failed to help buyers and discouraged people
from putting their property up for sale when the market needed a
boost. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged in their
manifestos and in their coalition agreement to get rid of HIPs