HIP Humiliation for Ruth Kelly!

It was HIP hip hooray yesterday when the Government was forced to back down over the introduction of home information packs yesterday with the announcement that HIPs will be put on hold for two months. The RICS have shunned the HIPS legislation and using their Authority of its Royal Charter they have brought about a humiliating U-turn from The Commons.

The last minute decision to delay the introduction of HIPs made by Ruth Kelly, Minister of State only confirmed the concerns of estate agents and surveyors alike that the British property market was less than prepared for the introduction of the unpopular and to some point hated HIPs. Ruth Kelly and her colleague Yvette Cooper, Housing Minister were only last week attempting to reassure the RICS that they have sufficient energy inspectors ready to cope with the demand HIPs will produce. With 520 qualified inspectors ready for the implementation of HIPs and an estimated 2,500 required this was clearly a display of incompetence and poor preparation, which has forced the HIPs law to be shunned.

Nick Salmon head of SPLINTA (sellers pack law is not the answer) said triumphantly yesterday "This bungled policy should have been killed off long ago and the HIPs as the Government envisaged them will never see the light of day".

So What Now?
Home Information Packs have not been completely quashed, in fact as it stands, however unsteady that is, HIPs will come into play on 1st August but only for houses of four bedrooms or more. There is a possibility that over time HIPs will also be phased in for three, two and one bedroom properties, although there is no start date for this and hopefully never will. The big question is how many studies can a house legally have from 1st August? We at John Earle & Son can see a trend appearing of three bedroom houses with studies and play rooms...where there's a will there's a way!!