Beckett says Hips not living up to potential

02 January 2009

Housing minister Margaret Beckett is acknowledging the weakness of Home Information Packs following months of dissatisfaction from across the industry.

Beckett refused to scrap the program in her address to the House of Commons today but says that the packs are not living up to their potential.

Beckett says: "Given all the abuse that Hips suffered I think they've been relatively successful.
"But that doesn't mean that they're fulfilling their potential.

Beckett says Hips have been limited by negative media coverage and a cold reception from the property industry but that they do have some degree of beneficial impact.

She adds: "But I fully accept that they're not, perhaps, the perfect vehicle we might wish for. I accept they're not working to the potential they could."
Grant Shapps, Conservative shadow housing minister, says:

"The industry doesn’t want Hips and the public don’t want them. The only people who do are Labour Ministers and now the Housing Minister has expressed grave doubts about them.

"Its taken a financial crisis and the third Labour Housing Minister in nine months to finally admit what we have been saying all along. Hips are an expensive, useless, bureaucratic nightmare that are choking an already struggling property market."

“If the Housing Minister can admit that the Government got Hips wrong then she can stand up to the Prime Minister and use the legislation which allows Hips to be suspended immediately and give the housing market a boost it so desperately needs."
Source: Laura Stavro-Beauchamp