Forum Brief: Draft Housing Bill

Home information packs are a central feature of a wide-ranging package of measures in the draft Housing Bill.

Formally known as a "seller's pack", it is a key part of a series of reforms aimed at modernising the current archaic and inefficient system in England and Wales that costs home buyers and sellers hundreds of millions of pounds of wasted expenditure each year.

A spokesman for the ODPM told ePolitix.com: "The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister published its draft Housing Bill for consultation on 31 March 2003. The draft Bill includes proposals to introduce 'Home Information Packs' that will help make the home buying and selling process easier.

"A 10 week consultation period has now begun and consultation documents are available on the ODPM website

"The government welcomes and values comments from industry representatives and points raised by the industry will be addressed in our discussions with key stakeholders over the coming months."

Forum Response: British Property Federation

Ian Fletcher, commercial and residential director at the British Property Federation, said: "In sum total this Bill typifies a long-standing approach of governments towards the private rented sector - too much stick and not enough carrot. Regulation should be a last resort and countered with education and incentives for landlords - both absent in the pronouncements.

"Our key concern will be to ensure that the discretionary powers in the Bill, which allow local authorities to selectively license landlords and other housing in multiple occupation (HMOs), come with appropriate strictures. We recognise and welcome that government is trying to ensure that the powers it is granting are sufficiently targeted. It is imperative that they are, because if not, they could lead to some quality landlords disposing of HMOs, potentially driving standards down rather than up.

"Further 'devil in the detail' will be the enforcement regime the government is proposing. If it is too strong it will risk further alienating responsible landlords, but if it is too weak it will put a lot of good landlords to extra work for no gain.

"It is imperative also that government recognises that higher standards require funding. Simply regulating, without making grants available for improvements, or encouraging investment, will only lead to less housing stock.

"Landlords will be mystified that government is promoting licensing as a remedy for anti-social behaviour, which is totally inconsistent with what else it is doing. Neither this draft bill or the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill give private landlords any extra powers to tackle the problem and worse, make it easier for social landlords to evict anti-social tenants, hence shifting the problem onto the private rented sector."

Forum Response: Local Government Association

Paul Jenks, chairman for LGA's housing executive, said: "The licensing of Housing in Multiple Occupation is something that the LGA has been lobbying for, for many years. It will help to ensure greater protection for tenants in around 120,000 of the most vulnerable households in the country.

"On licensing private landlords, this would go a long way to dealing with unscrupulous landlords and anti-social tenants undermining regeneration efforts, but the problem of anti-social behaviour and landlord harassment is not restricted to low demand communities. It can, and does, occur anywhere. We would like to see the introduction of licensing for the whole of the private sector in the longer term."

The Council of Mortgage Lenders

Michael Coogan, director general for the Council of Mortgage Lenders, told ePolitix.com: "The CML welcomes the publication of the draft Housing Bill and looks forward to working closely with the government to ensure that the significant practical problems that remain with Home Information Packs (HIPs) are properly addressed and resolved before the Bill moves to become law.

"We will be providing detailed comments on the draft Bill as well as responding to the consultations on both the contents of the proposed HIP and their impact in areas of low value/demand.

"In particular, the home condition report raises a number of issues:

• How will Home Inspectors be insured so as to protect both the public and lenders as consumers of HIPs?

• How will we ensure that the Home Condition Report feeds seamlessly into lenders' underwriting processes - thus contributing to efficiency gains?

• Where will the vast number of Home Inspectors needed to undertake compulsory Home Condition Reports come from and how will they be trained?

"It is vital that the industry is both involved and has confidence in the structures in place to address issues such as those set out above. The time may be upon us when a high level task force, made up of senior industry representatives, is required to co-ordinate the resolution of the many outstanding issues that threaten the smooth implementation of HIPs."

Forum Response: National Association of Estate Agents

Julie Westby, president of the NAEA, said: "The proposed introduction of HIPs is a dangerous move by the government. It has been poorly researched, and imposes extra costs and bureaucracy in and already complex market. It could have serious repercussions on housing transactions, and consequently on house prices.

"The vast majority of our members view Home Information Packs as detrimental to the home buying process and not at all in the best interest of consumers.

"We urge the government to listen to our concerns and incorporate much needed changes to these proposals. HIPs is yet another nanny state policy produced by a government with honourable intentions but a complete lack of understanding as to how the housing market works."

Forum Response: Consumer's Association

Emma Harrison, senior public affairs officer for the Consumers' Association, told ePolitix.com: "The Consumers' Association welcomes the bill and pack. The current system is very antiquated - purchasers receive little information about properties and can't make an informed choice when putting in an offer, while sellers are too frequently let down in the chain when they have already made other commitments. The system makes buying and selling a property extremely traumatic for too many people.

"The next challenge for the government is to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place so that buyers can have complete faith in the pack.

"The Consumers' Association is also calling for a speedy and free redress mechanism to be introduced so that consumers are protected should things do go wrong.

"It is to be hoped that all sectors of the industry from mortgage lenders to agents come together and make the new system work for the benefit of their customers."

Forum Response: Construction Products Association

Allan Wilen, economics director for the Construction Products Association, told ePolitix.com: "The Association is pleased to see the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIP) in this legislation. The requirement to provide a Home Condition report to buyers will prove valuable in informing them of the energy profile of the property and could be used by the sellers as a Unique Selling Point where energy efficiency measures have been introduced.

"This new degree of transparency will encourage those selling their houses to improve their property's energy efficiency performance which should help achieve the government's aim of improving the efficiency of the UK's housing stock.

"The Bill does not currently specify how energy efficiency should be expressed in the HIP. The Association believes that each property should receive a Standard Assessment Procedure rating in order to maximise the ability of buyers to make an informed comparison when buying a home.

"In addition, the proposed evidence-based Housing Health and Safety Rating system should provide a more comprehensive basis for identifying unacceptable housing conditions than the existing system.

"The government estimates that some 1.9 million homes will fail to meet the new higher standards, 400,000 more homes than under the current Housing Fitness Standard. However, at present fewer than 50,000 properties are actually identified by local authorities for improvement each year.

"Accordingly whilst the Association welcomes the introduction of appropriate minimum standards for housing quality, it is important that the legislation forms part of a wider strategy to encourage improvements to the housing stock."