Hips scheme criticised by lords

Posted: 02 May 2007 11:25:54 GMT

The government's Home information pack scheme (Hips) has come in for severe criticism and should be dropped, a House of Lords committee has said.

The government's Home information pack scheme (Hips) has come in for severe criticism and should be dropped, a House of Lords committee has said.

Peers in the House of Lords select committee on the merits of statutory instruments studying the scheme, which is due to come into force on June 1st, noted that the home-selling industry had shown "at best scepticism and at worst hostility" towards the proposals and said there would not be enough inspectors to provide the energy performance assessments.

Opponents of Hips welcomed the report, with Conservative housing spokesman Michael Gove saying: "Extra bureaucracy won’t help a single person struggling to get on the housing ladder, nor will it make the process of buying a home any less stressful."

Housing minister Yvette Cooper suggested the report was flawed, saying that the Lords committee had not taken evidence from industry groups and environmental organisations which support Hips.



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