Hips delay down to market volatility

Posted: 17 Oct 2007 10:57:14 GMT

Home information packs (Hips) will continue to be rolled out across the housing market once the market has settled down.

Home information packs (Hips) will continue to be rolled out across the housing market once the market has settled down.

Parliamentary under secretary of state for housing and planning Iain Wright told the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) Annual Conference that market volatility had delayed the expansion of Hips.

The global credit crisis has affected the markets in recent months and the added distraction of a further Hips rollout was deemed to be an unnecessary risk.

Initially, the packs were launched for properties with four or more bedrooms from August 1st before being expanded to include three bedroom-properties on September 10th.

Since then, there have been no further announcements but Mr Wright confirmed that a full-scale rollout is still on the cards.

This has been welcomed by many industry figures, among them Dominic Toller from Hips provider LMS: "We have known for a long time that the industry is absolutely ready for the full rollout of Hips across all properties and we are pleased to hear that they are monitoring closely the effect Hips have had so far.

"This news will also be welcomed by the many Home Inspectors and Domestic Energy Assessors who are ready to support the final phase of implementation," he added.

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