The Conservatives would scrap HIPs “in a matter of weeks” after coming to power, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps has said.
Nothing unusual in that: he has been saying it to the trade press, including EAT, consistently and for some time. However, he is now widely telling national newspapers the same thing.
Speaking to The Times, in an interview now carried in several other papers, he said that abolishing HIPs would be his first task, should his party win the election.
Shapps said: “House prices are rising because supply is restricted. HIPs have not helped. The main priority is to scrap them. They are easy to suspend and there are emergency powers we can use to do so. This can happen very quickly. HIPs will be gone in a matter of weeks.”
Shapps also said in the same interview that a Conservative government would raise the house price threshold above which Stamp Duty is payable to £250,000.
Full story, see link below.
Conservatives promise to scrap HIPs if they win general election
Comments
This country is Broke & its time for a real Change! Get Labour Out Now!!!
As an estate agent HIPs have helped my company enormously in getting a sale to exchange quicker. I have also found that because all the info on a property is up front we seem to get a lot less time wasters from the outset of the process of an agreed sale going to exchange. I believe the HIP needs changing (exchange ready HIPS seem a better idea) but to get rid of the model entirely would be a retrograde step.
I have it on good authority (and I mean very good), that ministers are considering suspending the HIP with immediate effect (within 14 days apparently) partly to spike to the Tories' guns on the issue and to address the obvious effect that the Tories' announcements on the HIP will have on the market prior to an election. It appears the strategy will be to finalize the decision quickly and make an announcement in the next week or so to avoid any prolonged disruption to the supply of homes to be sold. There was some discussion regarding job losses at HIP companies but it was decided that actual job losses would be relatively low as most HIP employees were employed within the legal industry prior to HIPs being introduced. This may or may not be the case but potential job losses didn't seem to be a deal breaker. Over the next week, the strategy re: EPCs is being worked out. That's all I know.
Hip Hip hooray!
Get the conservatives in !!!!
The reality is that this news will NOT help the housing market and may force first time sellers to procrastinate reducing stock further. Shapps is thinking of votes, not the effect of the announcement and the fact it compounds that which he claims he wants to avoid.
I'm not anti-HIPs but if you want to get picky Del, many people aren't selling because HIPS are in place (regardless of speculation of the Torie's plans). The fact of the matter is HIPs HAVE put 'some' people off of selling their home....
There speaks the cynic !!
More things to make buyers wait before buying and sellers wait before selling