The Conservative Party election manifesto confirms that, if elected, they intend to abolish HIPs.

Of course, we’re a prominent HIP provider in Bristol — so we’re bound to be against it, right?

Not necessarily. The abolition of HIPs will be a blow but a move such as this could have much wider implications for the economic recovery, as you’ll see below.

Why do the Conservatives want to abolish HIPs?

They’ve always opposed the introduction of HIPs from the opposition benches, arguing that they add cost and bureaucracy to the housing market. So now they want the opportunity to kill them off.

However, it doesn’t look like they expect this promise to be much of a vote winner. It merits only one sentence in their manifesto:

We will also abolish Home Information Packs, which have made a significant contribution to problems in our housing market.

That’s all. It doesn’t define the ‘significant contribution’, or the ‘problems’ — nor does it say whether any alternative measures are planned.

HIPs are not mentioned in the other parties’ manifestos, so it’s clear this is not a raging political battleground. Still, if the Conservatives are voted in on May 6th, what are the likely consequences if Home Information Packs are consigned to history?

Will abolishing HIPs harm, not help the housing market?

If the Conservatives thought the introduction of HIPs has cost the housing market money, abolishing them could backfire in the same way.

To see why, look back to what happened when HIPs were introduced. Vendors rushed to market their homes before the HIP deadline arrived. The market was then eerily quiet for a while afterwards.

The side effect of pledging to do away with HIPs is that many sellers will wait a month or so to market their homes without one, in order to avoid the typical £368 cost.

In other words, scrapping HIPs could impose another lurch in the housing market at a far more sensitive time.

What people don’t realise about HIPs…

Aside from whether it will rock the boat in the housing market, abolishing HIPs won’t make as much of a difference to sellers as the Conservatives are claiming. Here’s why:

1. HIPs don’t cost as much as politicians think

Conservative opposition to Home Information Packs was based on the cost of obtaining a HIP being a significant deterrent to vendors.

However, the Home Condition Report—the structural survey that would have accounted for most of the mooted £700 cost—was later cancelled.

Had this component been included, it would also have added much more meaning to HIPs and made them much more important from a buyer’s point of view. True, HIPs would have been more expensive—but also in my view a lot more successful (more on this in a future post).

2. You’ll still need an EPC

The only part of a HIP that’s new to the home selling process was the requirement to include an Energy Performance Certificate in the information provided to buyers.

Even if  HIPs are cancelled tomorrow  you’ll still need to get an EPC—they’re part of different legislation at a European level.

The rest of the paperwork still needs to be obtained anyway; HIPs merely moved this requirement from the end of the homebuying process to the beginning to try to speed things up a little.

Why cancelling HIPs won’t change what we see on the Horizon

Home Information Packs are currently the product that has to be wrapped around our domestic EPCs. However, the requirement for both domestic and commercial EPCs will stay even if HIPs are cancelled and as we all are feeling with the recent rises in the price of petrol the burden that fuel places on our budgets is steadily increasing. We are leading providers of EPCs throughout Bristol and the surrounding area and people are beginning to be a little more mindful of the information they contain. The EPC has always been our primary focus and this is why we are market leaders.

From our point of view, once the EPC has been delivered, the rest of producing a HIP is office work: putting together pieces of paper, administration. That’s why this piece isn’t exactly a rant at the anti HIP lobby; after all it’s hard to be passionate about administration, however, energy is a very different matter!

What do you think?

Are HIPs just a Tory bugbear? Would you keep them—or improve them?

Or will the pledge to scrap HIPs be a vote winner?