Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Lords, I am disappointed that we return to the issue of home information packs, because the House has debated them long and hard in the past 12 months and, finally, we agreed on the way forward. I take issue with the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith—oddly, because I do not do that often—but it is unreasonable to blame home information packs and energy certificates for the current lack of mortgages in the market. We all know perfectly well that the residential market is frozen because of the lack of availability of mortgage finance. The noble Lord said that home information packs were marginal. Abolishing them would be a gesture and a wholly retrograde step. This afternoon I spent a long time talking to some housebuilders. Not only did they want us to get rid of home information packs, but to significantly dilute all quality standards and elements of the sustainable buildings code that will make a serious difference to climate change. It is wrong to use the current, one hopes temporary, state of the capital and housing markets to renege on very hard-fought and hard-won advances in terms of the impact that the housing construction industry has on climate change. I urge noble Lords to resist the amendment.