Insurance News Archive

Hips to receive killer blow?

Following the Home Information packs launch fiasco, senior government officials are reportedly plotting to neuter the packs.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, this would involve a dramatic cull of documents that will be included in the packs.

An un-named senior government source told the newspaper: "The most likely outcome is that the only part of Hips that will remain will be the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate)."

The survival of EPCs would be due to the chancellor Gordon Brown's previously reported enthusiasm for the energy-saving benefits they could offer, in addition with the fact they are due to become mandatory anyway in 2009 under European Union law.

But such a reduction in the required documents forming a Hip would be another devastating blow to the burgeoning industry which already was hit by the launch date U-turn from the government last week.

The scrapping of the bulk of Hips, including local searches and title deeds, would be a humiliation for Ruth Kelly, the Communities Minister, who is in line to be replaced in the Cabinet shake-up following Gordon Brown succession.

29 May 2007