HIPS: home packs rethink pressed for

Home information packs - Ministers came under fire from peers as pressure mounted on the government yesterday to delay next month’s introduction of the contentious housing measure. 

The Tories and Liberal Democrats pledged to join forces in a last-ditch parliamentary effort to block the regulations implementing Hips.  The Conservatives plan to table a motion in the Lords next week in the hope of forcing a vote on the packs.

Critics, including the housing industry, are concerned Hips could damage the housing market and impose unnecessary costs.  The regulations will require anyone selling a home to provide a Hip, including an energy-rating for the property, at an estimated cost per pack of £300 or more.  The government has already been forced significantly to water down the proposed contents, which were originally to include a survey.

A Lords vote to block the rules would break the long-standing convention that peers do not oppose secondary legislation.  But peers breached this convention last month when they blocked government plans on casinos, following a critical report by the Lords select committee on the merits of statutory instruments.  That same committee will next week issue a report on Hips, which is widely expected to be hostile. 

Peers on the committee this week grilled officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government over Hips.  Lord Filkin, the Labour chairman, said the committee had scrutinised hundreds of other statutory instruments but he could not think of any where there were “so many stakeholders so passionately disgruntled and critical”.

The government was accused of using “guesses” in its Regulatory Impact Analysis cost-benefit calculations for the regulations, published just before Easter.  Lord Tunnicliffe, the Labour peer, said the analysis was “the most data-free I have ever seen”.

The analysis cites the total cost and cost per transaction for introducing Hips, with no quantified breakdowns or details of the underlying assumptions.  A request by the Financial Times for this information, made to the DCLG last month, has still not been answered.   The department was yesterday unable to comment further on its proposals.

The Tories are optimistic they could win in the Lords on the issue, if they are able to put it to a vote.  Michael Gove, the shadow housing minister, told the FT:  “Given the strength of feeling among Conservatives, Lib Dems and cross-benchers, a vote could well force the government to think again.”

The Lib Dems hardened their stance yesterday, saying:  “We’re in agreement with the Tories – we don’t think Hips should be implemented until the results of the pilot schemes are known [later this year].”

Groups calling for the introduction of Hips to be delayed while the plans are rethought include the National Association of Estate Agents, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.