Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 158: 158: Before Clause 277, insert the following new Clause— ““Abolition of home information packs (1) Sections 148 to 170 of the Housing Act 2004 (c. 34) are repealed. (2) A person who is selling a residential property must supply the purchaser with information about the energy efficiency of the property. (3) The Secretary of State may make regulations prescribing the particular information which is required or authorised to be included in, or which is to be excluded from, such energy efficiency information and all other incidental matters relating to it.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we return to the subject of the home information packs. The noble Lord, Lord Graham, appears surprised but I do not see why. We have moved forward 10 days since we last debated the matter. In that debate I reported that the home information packs, which were introduced as a frightfully good idea without adequate testing, had produced a very negative result. Eight out of 10 sellers do not think that the home information pack has been any help to them in selling their property, and nor did 70 per cent of them think that it had made doing so more efficient. Curiously enough, 55 per cent of buyers did not think that it had speeded up or helped the process either. Only a few months ago, we had the report from Sir Bryan Carsberg which took a careful look at what had happened to the home information packs and the housing market. His conclusions are highly critical. He said that the home information pack had been watered down and now appeared to consist of very little information. None the less, it still costs much the same. He said that, "““few buyers have shown an interest in the HIP, and a substantial number of conveyancers ignore its existence and recommission searches on receiving instructions from their buyer””." He summarised the position by saying that the home information pack, "““provides the worst of all worlds—it omits much of the most useful information but still imposes significant costs on the property transaction””." He raised a more fundamental objection, saying that, "““consumer well-being, in matters like property transactions, is best secured by operation of the market. The imposition of constraints by central decision makers is not likely to serve consumers well because it cannot take account of consumers’ wishes in the way that the market does … The market is better at producing customer satisfaction than legislation can be””." Since the debate only 10 days ago, the market has continued to worsen. I spoke to someone at only the beginning of the week who was familiar with the City, and he said that the trouble was that the banks effectively had no money. Through the regulators, the Government have rightly required the banks to strengthen their reserves. Given that the banks were to some extent overborrowed and overlent, they need to do that. However, the effect has been that if banks can get hold of funds, those funds are then put into their reserves. As a consequence, the money is not available for commercial use anywhere, so the market continues to devalue and depreciate. In those circumstances, anything that would reduce the cost of a transaction would undoubtedly be helpful. I accept entirely that one should not take short-term decisions to deal with what one hopes is only a short-term situation, but the housing market is practically non-existent at the moment. You have only to look at what is happening to our main house-construction firms to see that there is a deep problem. If one is honest, the problem is so severe now that tackling it in a short-term way will not produce a solution. None the less, it would be appropriate as a gesture—it would be no more than that—to remove one possible impediment, although a tiny one, which is on the record so far as having helped to slow the market down. It has led to particular houses not being put forward for sale. The whole question of home information packs has always been doubtful. In our party, we have always wished them to exist for no longer than they have to. We have an opportunity tonight, if we choose to take it, to remove them and remove an impediment. It might have only the most marginal effect on the market, but if it has any beneficial effect it will be worth taking that step. I beg to move.