An incredible £657.6 million has been paid out by sellers for controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) since being introduced in 2007. HIPs have raised over £100 million in revenue for the Treasury.
The latest figures tell us that nearly two million sellers have bought the packs as a compulsory requirement since April two years ago.
The packs were supposed to hurry along the buying process, as they contain all of the property details, searches and an Energy Performance Certificate in one place. Unfortunately much of the documentation in the HIP is out of date on the day that it is produced and hence there is no cost saving as the purchaser needs to renew this documentation, leading to a duplication of costs.
The government has been accused by the Conservatives of stifling the property market with yet more red tape, creating a headache for those wishing to sell their homes, in an already turbulent market.
The Conservatives, should they come to power, have vowed to banish HIPs, except the Energy Performance Certificates.
Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said: 'By imposing a £657.6 million burden on the housing market during the longest and deepest recession in living memory, Labour's short-sighted bureaucratic policy is milking the industry dry. They should have listened to the consumers, the industry and the Conservative Party and scrapped this discredited scheme before it even began.” I couldn’t agree more.
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