Leader: Home information packs

Leader: Home information packs

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Thursday May 24 2007

It is the Royal Institution (not Institute) of Chartered Surveyors. This has been corrected.

---

All through their long, tortured delivery, home information packs have appeared a policy good in intention but bad in handling. Critics allege that ministers have been unwilling to consult or explain themselves, forcing through a set policy. Yesterday afternoon, even as Ruth Kelly bowed to her opponents, she demonstrated the justification of their grievances, managing to be both summary and vague. Just eight days before the launch of a policy that would affect every homeowner and would-be homeowner in England and Wales, Ms Kelly decided to mothball the entire thing. Why? Like a pupil with late homework, her explanations multiplied and got more complex as she went along. First there was a judicial review that had been lodged by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Yet she admitted she had known about the judge's order since last Thursday. Why not come to the Commons sooner? No answer. Then Ms Kelly admitted there were not enough fully certified assessors to provide the energy performance certificates that are a core part of the packs. The shortage, in fact, amounts to just under 2,000 assessors. Ms Kelly would have known of this bottleneck long ago. Why wait until now? No answer.

In the.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

headlong rush to get them past the critics and off the ground, home information packs (Hips) have got thinner and more threadbare. In 1997, when Labour first proposed them, they were meant to simplify a complicated process by providing all the documents needed to buy a house, from survey to searches. The property industry, sniffing an attack on their commissions, forced ministers to jettison the key parts. Hips were now sold as a green measure, thanks to those energy certificates, which an EU directive would have brought in anyway. When Hips are finally launched, in August, they will be but a shadow of their former selves. Only four-bedroom houses on sale will have to have one. That is 18% of all houses, although a lot of four-bedders are likely to be transformed this summer into three-beds, with a boxroom - and a nod and a wink. There was no indication yesterday when Hips would be rolled out for the remaining 82% of the housing market. Nor was there any comfort for the thousands who have scraped together nearly £4,000 apiece to retrain as energy assessors and will now struggle for a livelihood.

The property industry has more middlemen than the silk route. There are estate agents, surveyors, solicitors, mortgage brokers. The number of links in that chain provides vast scope for things to go wrong. Were they introduced as envisaged, Hips could have been an opportunity to tidy up this mess. Now they just look like adding to it.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007