Minister backs down on surveys in home sale packs

Minister backs down on surveys in home sale packs

The government yesterday abandoned the central element of the controversial home information packs amid mounting concern that the scheme could throw the property market into chaos.

Homeowners will no longer have to include a survey - known as a home condition report - in the new sellers' packs, the housing minister, Yvette Cooper, said yesterday in a climbdown on a scheme launched by John Prescott.

Ms Cooper said the expected 7,000 new home inspectors needed to produce the reports may not be in place by June next year, when the packs are due to come into force, and further testing was necessary.

"There would be significant risks and potential disadvantages to consumers from a mandatory 'big bang' introduction of full home condition reports on June 1 2007," she said. Home information packs would still be introduced, with searches and other key documents including energy performance certificates, from June next year, she added.

Critics, led by Kirstie Allsopp of the Channel 4 programme Location, Location, Location, claimed that the packs, which before yesterday's announcement were expected to cost as much as £1,000, would be next to useless because loopholes meant that buyers would still have to pay for surveys.

Last week more than 125 MPs, including former Labour ministers Frank Field and Kate Hoey, signed a cross-party Commons motion urging the chancellor, Gordon Brown, to ditch the scheme.

The Tory shadow housing minister,.....continued below

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Michael Gove, said yesterday the packs were "expensive and deficient red-tape". He added: "The government's ongoing plans for home information packs are now a complete shambles ... it should abandon the whole scheme and consult afresh."

But yesterday's announcement stunned the nascent home information pack industry, which has begun training thousands of potential inspectors to carry out the reports. About 45 HIP companies have started business since the scheme was announced, investing more than £250m.

Paul Brandwood, of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers, said: "We are very disappointed. We did not expect this and we don't think it is necessary. Our research found that 85% of the consumers said they wanted a home condition report as part of the pack."

He said the exclusion of surveys would cut the cost of a HIP from around £700 to £600, although other industry players said it could bring the cost down to around £350.

The consumer group Which? sent a letter to Ms Cooper stating that it was withdrawing its support for the scheme. Nick Stace, campaigns and communications director, said: "The homebuyer was looking to the government to hold firm in the face of criticism from the estate agents.

"Instead, the government has shown its house is made of straw. The new 'half-HIP' will be a useless but very expensive waste of time."

Attention will now focus on how the new energy performance certificates will be produced for the packs, necessary to meet obligations under a European directive coming into force in 2009. The certificates will give a home an A-G rating, similar to fridge ratings, as well as a list of practical measures to cut fuel bills and carbon emissions.