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Housing: Home Information Packs

My Lords, I came to this subject via the indirect route of a member of my family undertaking the training to implement these packs in time to be told that the scheme was not happening. I regarded that as annoying to them—that is an understatement—and as fundamentally unfair to anybody who had undertaken the training. The Government brought in the scheme and then the Government took it away. The cost involved is considerable—more than £8,000—and the course controls your life for a year. I have figures that show that it takes 15 to 20 hours per week of home learning over a year. Vast amounts of effort are required to do that. Suddenly, something that you had been working towards that you thought would bring you career advancement was taken away at the drop of hat—at least, that is what it felt like. Then, when the noble Baroness responded to a topical question—it was the last topical question we had, so perhaps her reply will be more entrenched today—those people found out that the energy component will remain. The figures that I have on that course is that it costs £3,000—as opposed to £8,000—the maximum total home learning is about 40 hours and it can be done in about three months. I was given those figures by one of the major suppliers. So 15-plus times more work and effort over a year—when your applications for jobs and everything else in your life are being controlled by that intensive training—was taken away. I did not get involved in whether the packs were a good idea in the first place. Initially, they seemed attractive to me, and they still do as a concept. As the implementation was this badly done, I suggest that the Government have a duty at least to compensate those people who have done that work. The junior level of training required for the secondary qualification for which you are apparently covered does not compensate for the amount of effort you have put in. A greater number of people can enter the market to get the training quickly and will thus be competing with you. There is no compensation for the amount of time that you have put in. No matter what their reasons or how logical they were, the Government must stand up and say, ““We got it wrong, we will give you a form of compensation””. Initially, I thought that some repayment of the costs would be enough, but the longer this goes on, the more it will rankle. Every time the Government insist on some training to fulfil a government post, I would be looking over my shoulder for a wee bit, especially in this field. Surely there is a duty—indeed, a moral responsibility—on the Government to give some form of compensation. I look forward to the Minister’s reply, but the fact that you have a junior qualification from your much more expensive training does not cut the mustard. I look forward to the Government taking some action to give compensation.