Charles Walker condemns Home Information Packs as yet another tax on home owners.

5.50 pm

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): We have just returned after an extremely long summer recess, but when those of us who have been Members for at least two and a half years—and have therefore been involved in the whole home information pack fiasco—sit through debates such as this one, we realise that the summer recess is in fact not long enough. It should instead be about 11 months long, because when Members are away from the House they do not come up with hare-brained schemes such as the home information pack, which is just yet another tax on home owners.

This Government clearly do not have a great love for home owners, because on top of massive increases in stamp duties over the past 10 years and the recent Northern Rock fiasco—which has led to interest rate rises for home owners—they want to bring in yet another cost in the form of home information packs. It is all very well for the Minister, who clearly does not believe in them any more either, to say that a HIP will cost only £350 or £400—that it amounts to merely a marginal increase in the cost of buying a house—but £350 or £400 is a lot of money for many people. I have not met anyone in my constituency or anywhere else who has said, “Actually, I think home information packs are a very good idea.”

In his speech, the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller) expressed faux compassion for LMS, one of the largest HIP providers. It is clear that LMS wrote his speech for him—and it is also clear that it managed to get it to him only a couple of hours ago, because it was not well rehearsed.

The situation is bizarre: our country has a good housing market that works fairly well—in fact, it is one of the best-working housing markets—but this Government have decided in their wisdom to gum it up. Of course, major transactions such as buying or selling a house do not always proceed as smoothly as one would like. They can come undone; people can pull out of a sale or purchase, or raise or drop the price. That is the nature of the market; and I wish this Government truly understood the market, because then they would not spend so much time interfering in its workings and making things all the more difficult for the many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who want to buy homes each year.

Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold) (Con): I apologise for not having been present for the entire debate. During the recess, I bought a house and sold a house, and my sale took longer as a result of the pack because the searches are limited and the purchaser’s solicitor insisted on doing his own full searches, which he had relied on in the past. I also think that the energy performance certificates are suspect and cannot be relied upon; I thought my house was extremely well insulated—it is double glazed throughout and the roof and tank are insulated—yet it got a relatively low score.

Mr. Walker: My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. If I wish to buy a house in the future, I will not take the word of someone acting on behalf of the vendor. I will want to have a good look at the house for myself. Therefore, I will still pay my solicitor to do my searches. It is a little like buying a car. When we buy a car, the seller says, “I’ve got the service history,” but we reply, “That’s very useful, but I’m still going to get the guy from the AA to come along and have a look under the hood.”

Many of the people I talk to about this measure are concerned that it is just yet another excuse to have more people working in a quasi-governmental role snooping round their homes. They say, “There will be yet more people I’ve got to have in my home looking behind the curtains, looking under the bed, telling me what I should be doing.” There is not a huge appetite for that.

Again, we can ask: what will happen to the information once it has been secured? Will the Government take ownership of it and use it at a later date to raise our council tax bands, or use it as an excuse to increase stamp duty? We do not know with this Government, because any excuse is always grabbed to put up the cost of things such as buying homes or to increase taxes. That is the way this Government work.

If this Government were an honest Government, they would have had an election last week—but setting that aside, they would also realise that this measure has been an unmitigated disaster. It is so boring to come to the Chamber and hear former Ministers justify what they did before they were removed from office. The right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr. Raynsford) gave a lengthy exposition as to why the HIPs idea was so reasonable and good, but it is neither. Seven years have passed since he introduced it, but the faces of the few Labour Members still attending the debate make it clear that they know in their hearts that it is a disaster. Why do they not have the courage to say, “Look, we got it wrong. Let’s get rid of this nonsense. We’re very sorry we’ve wasted so many people’s time, and that we’ve conned those poor men and women into giving up their jobs and spending £4,500 on training to become inspectors.”

Opposition Members are nothing but fair. We recognise that those people must be compensated, even though taxpayers’ money would have to be used. We hate to see people disadvantaged—unlike the lot over there, who are quite happy to see millions of home owners every year disadvantaged by yet another tax. That is pretty thin gruel. Whenever the Prime Minister calls a general election, I think that people will let him know as much.

5.56 pm

...

SUBSEQUENT INTERVENTIONS IN THE SAME DEBATE

Mr. Walker: Does my hon. Friend share my view that there is no appetite left in Government to bring the issue forward? If they were honest and up front, they would ditch the disaster now and get on with other things for the next two and a half years.

James Duddridge: If they were a bolder, brighter Government looking forward not backward, they would certainly ditch the idea. The only problem is that that would be simply too embarrassing—but the people who suffer are our and their constituents.

...

Mr. Walker: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Our party is talking about giving £1,700 back to first-time buyers. Your party is talking about taking hundreds and hundreds of additional—

Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): Order. I will not be referred to and drawn into this debate.

Robert Neill: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s point, which is, as ever, well made.

...

Mr. Walker: Government Members may think that £400 is not a lot of money, but my constituents think that it is a great deal of money. Is it not the case that HIPs are just another Labour tax on hard-working men, women and families? That is the case, so is it not about time that the Government admitted it?

Robert Neill: The point is well made and shows the lack of contact between Government Members and the outside world. Yes, for my constituents £300 is a lot of money. The £1,700 to £2,000 saving that we will introduce through the stamp duty reduction is also a lot of money, especially for young couples trying to get on the housing ladder.

...

Mr. Walker: If the Minister does not think that £400 is a lot of money, what does he think is a lot of money?

Mr. Wright: The hon. Gentleman has made this point a number of times during the debate. Three hundred pounds is a lot of money, but that is already being paid in the house buying process. HIPs will stop duplication, improve efficiency and ensure that the house buying process is smoother than it would otherwise have been.

Mr. Walker: If the increase in cost is marginal, where is it coming from?

Mr. Wright: I shall deal later with energy performance certificates, which were sadly lacking from Opposition Members’ contributions this afternoon.

| Hansard