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Housing: Home Information Packs

My Lords, last June the Home Information Pack Regulations were reviewed by the Merits Committee, of which I am a member. What has been said already arises out of the implementation of Section 5 of the Housing Act 2004. I do not think that a case was made then, nor has one been made since, for the abandonment of self-regulation and the creation of a new class of certified inspectors. Such a bureaucratic intervention will not improve the working of the housing market. There are no reported distortions of substance to the housing market which call for government intervention and control. The Explanatory Memorandum and the regulatory impact assessment, which accompany the regulations, do not claim that there are. The proposed public sector regime does not follow from the consultation process and the responses to them. The driver in my view has been political philosophy, a perceived need to intervene and control, and not from an accurate assessment of the best interests of buyers and sellers in a market which in general works well. I will focus now on the energy performance certificates. These are the remaining mandatory plank on which the Government rely after correctly ditching home condition reports as mandatory. I cite the Explanatory Memorandum which came with the Home Information Pack Regulations. It states: "““The Regulations refer to energy performance certificates as the certificate required by Council Directive 2002/91/EEC (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) whose form and content complies with any enactment which implements that Directive made in accordance with article 7. Article 7 is expected to be implemented by January 2009. These Regulations do not implement the Directive, and given that they do not do so, there is no requirement to provide a Transposition Note””." So we are left wondering what is the future of the energy performance certificate. At first reading of the directive, it does not look especially onerous or unduly technical. Its major impact will be not on family houses of different types but on larger buildings, but we have yet to see how it will be transposed and how expert the required experts will need to be. In the mean time, as the Joint Committee asks in its 34th report of July, given the 2009 implementation date, why is there not an ““express temporary exception”” from the obligation to include energy performance certificates or predicted ones in home information packs? Given that uncertainty, no one in their right mind would rely for regular employment on becoming a home inspector. The fees earned may turn out to be nugatory. It is also high time for a second full round of consultation. It is approaching eight years since the unfortunately titled document, The key to easier home buying and selling, was issued. Much has happened since then. Much is happening now. It would be wrong for the Government to cling to proposals which do not even follow from the advice that they received. The public deserve better.