04/07/07 - Home Information Packs Becoming A 'Whitehall Farce'

Home Information Packs becoming a ‘Whitehall farce’ warns Deborah Dunleavy

Families may just move beds from their bedrooms to avoid the cost

Deborah Dunleavy, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton NE, this week critcised plans by Labour politicians to move ahead with new red tape on selling your home – so-called Home Information Packs.

Under the Government’s confused plans for these Packs, householders will have to pay up to £600 to put up a ‘for sale’ sign, or else be fined by the local council. Yet in the latest twist, the Packs will only be compulsory for four bedroom homes from 1 August 2007, and then phased in for three bedroom homes at an unspecified date, and then all homes at some point.

The small print of new Government regulations defines a four bedroom home as a property which is just “marketed” as a four bedroom home. This means that a house which is simply advertised as having “3 bedrooms and a spare room” would not need to spend hundreds of pounds on a Pack. A home owner could just move the bed out of the bedroom to comply with the letter of the regulations.

There will be no fall in the potential value of that home if buyers realise that “3 bedrooms and a spare room” is just language for a home with “4 bedrooms” being used to avoid a Pack.

Deborah said:

“The Labour Government’s plans for Home Information Packs are turning into a Whitehall farce. Just by moving a bed out of one of your bedrooms will avoid the need for family homes to pay for these expensive and unwanted Packs.

“Moving home is one of the most stressful things anyone can do. Yet this new red tape threatens to make it worse, not better. Rather than protecting consumers in Bolton, I fear these new regulations will cause public confusion and undermine the stability of the housing market. Conservatives are calling on Gordon Brown to scrap this chaotic bureaucracy.”