The UK government has announced that its Home Information Packs (Hips) scheme will receive a dry-run prior to its introduction on June 1, but the debate over its effect continues.
The government is kicking off an advertising campaign this month for the Hips scheme, launched a website and stepped up its voluntary trial of the packs. The packs will cost seller’s GBP825 to prepare, netting the government GBP111 million a year in VAT.
The packs are designed to prevent the GBP1 million that is wasted every day when house sales fall through, but some groups – including the opposition Conservatives – have claimed that the packs will increase bureaucracy.
Housing minister Yvette Cooper said: Home Information Packs have been long called for by consumer groups to give people reliable information at the beginning of the process. Now the dry run will make sure that all aspects of the Packs are properly tested before being fully introduced next year.
However, Caroline Spelman, Tory local government spokesman, said: Sellers’ packs are just another way of the Labour Government taxing the uplift in property values and levying a new GBP100m stealth tax on housing.
The National Association of Estate Agents said: This will simply shift existing problems from the middle of the process to the beginning.