Universally unpopular with almost everyone apart from energy efficiency engineers and anyone that can make a living out of selling them, the Tories are doing the decent thing and promising to scrap the controversial home information packs. Potential homeowners need cheaper and more cost efficient ways of buying property and do not need to be weighed down with a home information pack which adds more cost and bureaucracy to a home purchase. The Tories have identified that first time home purchase is at the lowest for 27 years, this is a very worrying statistic and the removal of the HIP scheme may help to address this situation. The Tories believe the introduction of these packs to have been an absolute disaster. Apart from the cost involved many industry professionals believe they simply do not work and the quality of information provided in each has been derided by many independent quarters.
This pledge coupled with the promise to remove stamp duty for first time buyers should help to keep the property market buoyant in what appears to be choppy waters ahead. At least two hurdles could possibly be removed from the sales process, of course to insure this will happen, the Tories will have to be elected first and at the present moment in onion pools are to be believed, this would seem no mean feet.
Home information packs have received a rough ride ever since their introduction and can set you back anywhere between £300 and £600. Oddly, they were introduced in an attempt to speed up house sales but many view them as having a detrimental effect on the market. At the present moment, any home with three bedrooms or more must have a home information pack. The government is intending to extend this to all homes by the end of the year. Many homeowners have already been put off by moving by property prices and stamp duty and the imposition of a Home Pack is seen another pointless hurdle. Of course in essence the idea behind the pack is good, but everyone already knows that when buying a property you never take the sellers word for it, that’s why you you appoint a solicitor ( a professional person) to help you find out what you need to know.
Of course the environmental aspect of the Home information is also important, homes generate a huge amount of wasted energy, however, it’s not implements that waste energy, it’s humans, boiling kettles, leaving lights on, flushing toilets etc etc. It’s common sense that to really save energy at home needs a conscious human effort not just a piece a paper saying the home is energy efficient.
