Hips delayed
May 22, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
Home Information Packs (Hips) are to be delayed following months of wrangling between industry officials and MPs.
Communities secretary Ruth Kelly has told the House of Commons that Hips will not be introduced on June 1st as promised but will instead be phased in from August 1st.
The announcement comes just ten days before the packs were due to introduced to the home-selling process and just one day before they were to be debated in the House of Lords.
Only days ago the government won a vote in the House of Commons in which it said Hips should be introduced on June 1st.
Now Ms Kelly has revealed that the date has been put back because there are insufficient numbers of surveyors trained and accredited to provide Energy Performance Certificates.
This comes despite recent assurances to the contrary and led to opposition MPs berating her in the Commons.
Ms Kelly remained adamant that Hips would eventually be introduced in the UK but said that the initial August 1st rollout would only apply to four-bedroom homes.
