Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Monday, 23 March 2009.

Housing: Home Information Packs

Question: My Lords, the Minister’s departmental website, which I trawled yesterday looking for evidence and research on HIPs, does not show any recent research. I could not find the reference to the independent research that she mentioned. The website did tell me that I could subscribe to Ministers’ "twittering" but that is not entirely helpful in this context. The Government cite the need for an evidence base. What evidence do they have on the effect of requiring a HIP from the first day of marketing, a change to be introduced at the beginning of April, as she mentioned? What difference will that make?

Answer: My Lords, over the past year we have been working closely with the industry. The package that we brought forward in December is looking at different forms of simplification and working parties. I can send the noble Baroness a collection of evidence that we have gathered and put forward, but essentially it is counterfactual evidence because the HIPs were not being seen and we were told not least by estate agents and consumer organisations that it was important for buyers and sellers to be able to handle the HIP to make sure that they knew what they were getting for their money and what information it contained.

Secondary information